Detainee Grabs Rifle, Fires Round During Transfer at Buncombe Jail

A 19-year-old Asheville woman reached into a locked firearm rack inside an Asheville Police Department transport vehicle and fired a rifle just before 10:45 p.m. Sunday, March 8, sending a bullet through the side of one police cruiser and into a second vehicle parked nearby in the sally port of the Buncombe County Detention Facility. No one was injured.

Angel Blanding was in APD custody and was being dropped off at the sally port, the secured outdoor transfer area where detainees move from transport vehicles into the jail for intake, when she managed to access the rifle. According to a warrant, the bullet passed through the first APD vehicle's side, causing $5,000 in damage, then struck an adjacent APD vehicle, causing an additional $10,000 in damage.

The Buncombe County Detention Facility was placed on lockdown immediately after the shot was fired. The Buncombe County Sheriff's Office said the lockdown is standard procedure in such incidents and confirmed the firearm never entered the interior of the jail.

The sheriff's office charged Blanding with discharge of a firearm in an enclosure, damage to property, assault on a law enforcement officer with a firearm, assault on a detention employee with a firearm, and resisting a public officer. Those charges come on top of a separate set of charges APD had already filed against her prior to the transfer. According to the detention center's website, Blanding was denied bond following the incident.

The Buncombe County Sheriff's Office initially reported the incident occurred Saturday, March 7, before correcting the date to Sunday, March 8. The incident remains under investigation.