Big Friday news: A 14-year-old arrested in gang-related shooting, Selina Sullivan drops out council race and Blue Ridge Paper chops jobs

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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Lots more news. Here we go:

Kassandra interviews gangster’s momma
WLOSers followed up on the Friday morning arrest of a 14-year-old in the gang-related shooting in Montford with an “exclusive” interview with the boy’s mother. The momma, predictably, said she thought her son was innocent.

Police served a search warrant at a home on Rock Hill Road in south Ashvegas and arrested the 14-year-old. The mom, Charlene Gray, said she was in bed when the police arrived. “They didn’t ring a door bell or anything.” No shit, Charlene. SWAT don’t roll like that.

The mother said she was “mad as hell” and “sorry about what has happened.” She said her boy wanted to go to a birthday party in Montford Saturday night and she dropped him off. She said she had no idea her son was a member of a gang. She said she was a good parent “and I try my best to keep up with my kids.”

Police said the kid he was a member of the Black Out Mafia gang in Shiloh and admitted shooting a gun into a crowd that night.

Gang activity triggers tight security at football game
Carolyn Ryan went to the Asheville High-Roberson High football game Friday night to tell us that, for the first time in Asheville High School history, police used hand-held metal detectors on fans arriving to watch the game. There were double the number of cops on hand (about 20) and school officials also set up giant lights to brighten the surrounding school campus.

Asheville High’s principal said all these plans were in the works well before last weekend’s shooting, but everything was speeded up after the shooting. Yeah right.

Selina Sullivan quits council race
WLOSers said Asheville City Council candidate Selina Sullivan has dropped out the race for City Council after all the bad publicity about her getting arrested and charged with writing a bad check for $1,500.

Pat “Simple” Simon said Sullivan told him that she was a key organizer in something called Worshipfest 2007 this summer, and it all fell apart. Simon tried to grill on her why she wrote a check if she knew she didn’t have the money, and she just said she thought the money was gonna come in. Simon said she owes some $21,000. Simon talked to a Crowne Plaza hotel manager, who said Sullivan still owes them about $4,000. Sullivan said she’ll do everything she can to “make this right.”

Sullivan is due to appear in district court on Oct. 23.

In an open letter to Ashvegas residents, Sullivan said situtation was also caused by members of the Republican Party out to get her. Simon did not address this issue at all in the video quotes he showed of Sullivan.

Blue Ridge Paper cutting jobs
Union officials at Blue Ridge Paper Products in Canton told Sheraldo that about 120 hourly jobs could be cut by next year. Some salaried personnel will lose jobs also, Sheraldo said. The job losses will happen in Canton and Waynesville, he said.

Sheraldo reminded us that a New Zealand company bought Blue Ridge Paper last year for about $338 million. Sheraldo said the average age of Blue Ridge Paper workers is 53. That was about it. No context on what’s happening in the paper-making industry or anything to help explain what’s going on.

In other news…
Work to fix a giant sinkhole at a shopping center parking lot of Merrimon Avenue continues. Businesses in the shopping center across from the north Ashvegas Ingles are still open, WLOSers said… *John Le did a story about a lumberjack competition… Jeremy Butterfield said Polk County residents will miss Boyce Carswell, a former sheriff in the county for 24 years who died recently. Carswell, a Democrat, rarely carried a gun and was known as a real “Mayberry-type of sheriff,” Butterfield said… And the drought continues, although it did rain some today.