Asheville leaders meet with U.S. attorney on violent crime spike

Federal involvement could change how Asheville handles shootings, gun cases and repeat violent offenders after a weekend of violence left two people dead and several others injured in early March. The city has also been wrestling with a 10% rise in property crime, even as violent crime fell to 451 incidents in 2025, down 24% from 2024.

That pressure brought local and federal officials together on May 5, when Asheville and Buncombe County leaders met with U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson to talk through violent crime in the city. The gathering included the Asheville Police Department, the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office and District Attorney Todd Williams. Ferguson said in writing that a “recent spike in violent crime in Asheville” was troubling, but that everyone in the room was committed to working together.

The meeting gave Asheville another layer of law-enforcement attention at a time when public safety concerns are still driving local politics. Ferguson now heads the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina, overseeing nearly 100 prosecutors and support staff across 32 counties. He was confirmed on Dec. 18, 2025, after first serving as interim U.S. attorney beginning March 3, 2025.

The crimes that most clearly pushed the issue back to the front of the agenda were concentrated and visible. In early March, three shootings in one weekend left two people dead and multiple people injured. City Council member Maggie Ullman said Asheville police responded with a 30-day crime initiative that led to 25 arrests and 10 firearm seizures.

That violence is unfolding alongside other strains that shape daily life in Buncombe County. Asheville’s property-crime total reached 4,038 incidents in 2025, and downtown complaints about trespassing and public intoxication have continued to surface in city discussions. The homelessness crisis is also worsening: the Asheville-Buncombe Continuum of Care counted 824 people experiencing homelessness in the county in the 2026 point-in-time survey, a 9.1% increase from 2025, with 334 people unsheltered. Officials said Hurricane Helene and a lack of affordable housing were major factors.

What residents should watch next is whether the roundtable turns into measurable action, not just another warning about crime. Asheville police say they are keeping public dashboards on crime summary, crime trends, traffic stops, gun discharge, response to resistance and ALPR systems, giving the city and its federal partners a way to show whether arrests, firearm seizures and violent-crime numbers actually move.