Nine Injured in Early-Morning Shooting on North Lexington Avenue

A patrol officer on duty near the 100 block of North Lexington Avenue heard gunshots just after 3 a.m. Sunday and ran toward the sound, reaching a victim in time to apply a tourniquet before emergency medical personnel arrived. That quick response was one of the few things that went right during a chaotic early-morning scene that left nine people injured and sent roughly 100 people running from the downtown block.

Asheville Police Department officers were dispatched at about 3:13 a.m. on March 8 to reports of multiple gunshot victims on North Lexington Avenue, a short corridor that runs from Woodfin Street toward the U.S. 70 bridge and is lined with bars and businesses. When officers arrived, less than a minute after shots were heard, they found multiple injured people scattered among a large crowd fleeing the scene, according to police spokesperson Rick Rice.

Of the nine people hurt, seven were struck by stray gunfire or bullet fragments. An eighth was injured while trying to reach safety. A ninth was physically assaulted and suffered a concussion, which Capt. Joe Silberman said was the most severe injury among the group. All nine were treated and released, with some driving themselves and others transported to Mission Hospital, according to spokesperson Samantha Booth.

Silberman, reached by phone on March 9, pointed to the timing as a likely factor in the scale of the incident. "That was right around the time bars would have let out," he said. "You have crowds in the street, alcohol and large gatherings, which can increase the chance of some kind of altercation." Rice said investigators are still working to determine exactly where the person who fired the weapon was standing when the shots were fired.

Detectives have identified a person of interest and are pursuing leads, police said, though no arrests or charges had been announced as of Monday afternoon. The Citizen-Times asked both Silberman and Booth why information about the shooting was not released to the public sooner. Booth said several factors are considered when releasing preliminary information and noted that incidents involving life-threatening injuries or an active shooter would trigger a press conference and the department's rapid response policy. The Citizen-Times requested a copy of that policy.

The North Lexington Avenue shooting was one of three separate shootings in Asheville over the weekend, which together left two people dead and nine injured, according to WLOS. Police said the incidents are not believed to be connected.

Anyone with information about the March 8 shooting is asked to call Asheville Police at (828) 252-1110. Anonymous tips can be submitted through the TIP2APD smartphone app, found by searching "Asheville PD" in any app store, or by texting TIP2APD to 847411.