Asheville News

WLOS: Huge brawl in parking lots over night

Jason Sandford October 17, 2008

Jason Sandford

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

WLOSers are reporting that a huge brawl, involving at times about 100 people, broke out in the Carter Street parking lot of the Citizen-Times, as well as the parking lot right across the street where a couple of night clubs are located. A Buncombe County Sheriff’s Deputy who was responding to the melee was involved in a car wreck while on his way.

The Citizen-Times leases the Carter Street lot, which employees have complained about for years. They’ve complained about its distance from the actual newspaper building, and they’ve complained about how it can be dangerous for employees walking to the lot at night. A couple of years ago, a man was shot and killed in the parking lot. I’ll have to find the photo I took of the blood-stained asphalt.

People from the night clubs used to park in the Citizen-Times lot, but it’s now got an electronic gate that only newspaper employees can activate with a badge. (By the way, the newspaper charges its employees to park there.)

Anyway, the Citizen-Times has surveillance cameras trained on the lot, so they should have some video of the action.

Jason Sandford

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

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4 Comments

lena October 23, 2008

I’ll be damned. Hoped the cameras never caught me picking my nose or something embarrassing! 🙂

But seriously, they really should provide employees with a safer place to park … walking down there at night was terrifying!!!

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Zipperhead October 17, 2008

What a load of crap. Make your employees pay to park in an unsafe lot that is a quarter of mile away. In the morning I have seen employees have to argue with the vagrants just to get a parking spot. Yes, vagrants that do not want to follow the rules of the shelters live in the ACT parking lot year round.

My life is worth a lot more then to risk it every day parking at that sewer hole full of angry vagrants.

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Ash October 17, 2008

Lena, those cameras work. I’ve seen McGlone pull video off of ’em. In one case, the cameras captured a van running through the plastic arms that bar the entrance. The plastic arm bent nearly to breaking, then flapped back into place. So much for security!

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lena October 17, 2008

I thought those were dummy cameras … I had heard they never even worked … Anyway I’m sure some developer will buy that parking lot soon anyway and put condos there.

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