What’s in the news: McDowell killings, the restaurant report card, book store moves, hikers arm themselves, Charu goes to jail, more snow on the way and more

Wow. A newsy end to the week, according to WLOSers:

McDowell shootings

Gunshots “shattered the silence” of the Nebo community in McDowell County Friday morning, WLOSers said, as a man shot and killed three people, injured another and then was injured himself in a shoot-out with cops.

WLOSers had “live team coverage.” First up was Jeremy Butterfield, who gave us the basics: A shooter named Stephen Buckner opened fire at his home Monday morning off Highway 70 in Nebo. The injured woman ran to a neighbor to call for help. When police arrived, Buckner, wearing a bullet-proof vest, fired at them. Police returned fire, hitting him several times. They arrested him and took him to the hospital.

Inside the home, police found three people dead, “three female fatalities,” is what WLOSers said. No names were released.

Terrie Foster talked to a neighbor who said he saw the shooting with police go down. The neighbor and his mamma said Stephen Buckner was a strange fellow who had threatened them, peeped into their windows and was generally a walking timebomb.

In other crime news…

A 32-year-old Macon County woman was sentenced to 19 months in jail and has to register as a sex offender after her conviction on charges that she had indecent liberties with five children, ages 10 to 14.

Restaurant report card

WLOSer Frank Frabone continues his Restaurant Report Card with a couple of interesting restaurants.

First was Shoney’s on Long Shoals Road, which got an 85 from the health inspector because live roaches were spotted on the prep line. Frabone walked in with his cameras, and nobody would talk to him. A manager called later and said the issue’s been fixed and the store has a 95 grade average over the last 15 years.

The bad report card came in on the McDonald’s on Leicester Highway, which also recevied an 85 for having a moldy ice machine and a dishwasher that wasn’t properly sanitized. Again, nobody at the store wanted to talk to him.

But why wait for WLOS? Just go to the county’s web site here that lists all local health inspections. You have to sign up, but it’s easy.

In other news…

Barnes and Noble announced that it will join the Asheville Mall by opening a store in 2009… Hikers are bringing guns into the woods in the wake of the recent Gary Hilton homicides, WLOSers said… And somebody stole $5,000 worth of pulled pork and barbecue sauce from the Big Mountain Barbecue restaurant in Waynesville.

More snow on the way

New weather-guesser Karen Wynne did Home Depot a big favor by camping out in their parking lot and doing a story about the Wednesday snow storm (3 inches) and the fact that more snow was predicted for Saturday.

Charu goes to jail

Charu had a good report telling us why the $24 million jail addition project in Buncombe County hadn’t opened yet. Charu said there are problems – the elevator wasn’t up to code, water pressure is bad and everything needs a bunch of safety checks.

The 240-cell jail, built to ease overcrowding in the county’s current jail, was supposed to open last September. Now it probably won’t open until summer, Charu said.

Wild ride into the river

Sheraldo told us that a 25-year-old woman and the green Honda Civic she was driving ended up in the middle of the Rocky Broad River Thursday. Nobody’s sure how it happened exactly, but all agree she was going way too fast for the curvy Hwy. 64 through the Hickory Nut Gorge.