A kitten killing, a belly landing and more

Kitten killing
please don’t pluck my head off
Have you noticed how Carolyn “Little Red” Ryan is looking more and more like Spock? She’s got those tight summer turtlenecks. Her ears are kinda pointy. The extra eye makeup… Anyway, Ryan brought us the shocking story of an alleged kitten killer Wednesday night.

A 17-year-old Candler kid named Damian – yeah, Damian – Buckner is charged with felony animal abuse for allegedly ripping the heads off two little kittens during an argument with his girlfriend. The girlfriend was babysitting a litter of six kitties for her mom.

Carolyn went for the gold in telling us this story, hinting at the horrific homicidal tendancies the kid might have. She interviewed a psychologist who said as much.

Carolyn got close ups of the little kitty brothers and sisters playing in the grass, and even picked one up, telling us that, where once there were six, now there were four totally fuzzy, totally helpless, cute little kitties.

For the kicker, Carolyn told us that the girl taking care of the kitties was seven months pregnant with her own little kitty, and that – you guessed it – the kitten killer is the father.

Belly landing at Asheville Airport
Apparently everybody missed it during the day on Wednesday, but WLOSers stuffed a little tidbit about a plane making a belly landing at the Ashvegas Airport into their entertainment report at 11.

Normally, the TVers would go nuts over a plane trying to land with no landing gear. The small plane, with just a pilot aboard, apparently pulled it off with no injury. But funny how nobody apparently knew about this.

Backtracking on a story
WLOSer Michelle Boudin was selling hard a story about a “home invasion” in Fairview in which a 13-year-old boy was shot in the hip.

Boudin said during reports during the evening news that two men “targeted” this family on a rural road way out in the middle of nowhere Fairview. One of the invaders fired a shot into a window, the two broke down the door, then wrestled with a boy who came running to the protection of his brother. Sheriff Bobby Medford said he didn’t know if the shooting was intentional or not, but the 13-year-old got hit in the hip.

Boudin kept emphasizing that the family was “targeted,” but the police wouldn’t tell her why. She quoted a neighbor as saying the family’s mailbox was “blown up” around July Fourth. And she noted that the family recently moved here from Utah. Hmmmm.

All the hype apparently smoked out the family, because Boudin had an interview with the 13-year-old’s mother at 11. The mother, nearly in tears, said she was shocked to find her son bleeding all over the house. She said she had “no idea” why her home was broken into. She said, “We’re just the average family just trying to live life.”

So much for a targeted attack, huh Boudin?

Merrimon Exxon shooting
Remember that shooting at the Merrimon Exxon awhile back – a guy went in to buy a case of beer, laid a $20 on the counter and took a caseload. But the Exxon clerk said it was after 2 a.m., so no beer sales allowed, and the clerk followed the guy out to his car and fired shots into the car, striking the beer guy at least once.

Well, the clerk was indicted this week for assualt with a deadly weapon and shooting into an occupied vehicle.

Health Headline
*Diva Darcel’s Health Headline: Smoking’s not good for anyone, especially women. No shit.

Barber: send me nekkid photos
WLOSers were all over a story about a Hendersonville barber at Eastside Barbershop being chargbed with sending porno e-mails to a 14-year-old boy and asking him for nekkid photos of him.

WLOSers, who had clearly already convicted the barber, said the emails were “extremely shocking” – isn’t “shocking” enough? – and they quoted a mysterous talking plant that said the barber should be arrested. Actually, they were quoting a family member, who sat all blurry in the background. The pretty plant was green and clear in the foreground. Sure looked like a plant interview to us.

Church break-ins
There have been eight break-ins in Macon County churches over the past four weeks. Terrie Foster is on the story.

In other news…
The city of Asheville is still fighting with the county of Buncombe over water. Some kinda legal motion, the latest in a series, has been filed. We have no idea if it means anything… Jon Le tells us that phone companies want to get in the business of competing with cable companies… Some woman slit a guy’s throat in Ashvegas… A 150-unit condo proposal for Overlook Road was put on hold by the county Board of Adjustment because a bunch of residents spoke out against it. The board said it needed more information… Fletcher condos got approved near Old Hendersonville Road. It will be 368 units of “affordable” units priced between $94,000 and $129,000… And Jay Seltzerwater says community colleges are going smoke-free.