One Look at Asheville’s Police Chief and You’ll Know Why They Have a ‘Group’ Problem

At 2:20 AM the morning of July 19th, Asheville, North Carolina, police officers responded to a call of ‘shots fired’ along with reports of multiple people with injuries in a block on Biltmore Avenue.

Yes, that ‘Biltmore’ and that famous avenue, named one of the ‘Best Main Streets’ in America just two years ago.

Biltmore Avenue and Broadway Street in Asheville made it into the top 10 of 100 main streets in the United States.

…Mixbook called Biltmore Avenue a cultural hub, praising its shops, dining options and the Asheville Art Museum. The list also noted nearby attractions including the Blue Ridge Parkway and, of course, the Biltmore Estate, as adding to the vibrancy of Western North Carolina.

Biltmore Avenue leads into the famous Biltmore Village, known for both its connection to the Biltmore Estate and its own array of fine dining, shopping, lodging and cultural value.

Two years later, it seems there’s some rumbling on the blocks in the early morning that doesn’t add much ‘vibrancy’ other than making the air sing around your head. It can get pretty dicey if you aren’t a quick-thinking type who ducks when you hear that first pop.

Asheville Police are investigating an early morning shooting that left two people dead and seven others injured.

According to the Asheville Police Department, patrol officers responded to the 250 block of Biltmore Avenue around 2:20 a.m. Sunday, after receiving reports of shots fired and multiple people struck by gunfire.

When officers arrived, they found multiple victims suffering from gunshot wounds.

At the time, according to interim (and veteran Asheville police officer) Asheville Police Chief Jackie Stepp, she was pretty sure it was just those darn hanger-outers, who don’t go home when the bars close. Sounds like it happened a lot around the city, the way she was kind of cavalier about explaining the bodies.

…“As we’ve seen in other areas of the city when bars and restaurants close around that time, establishments, people tend to go to their car and you know hangout for a minute before they depart to go home for the evening, I think that’s what was happening here,” said APD interim chief Jackie Stepp.

APD said two people were pronounced dead at the scene despite life-saving efforts from officers, EMS and the Asheville Fire Department.

A reporter asked her about rumors it had been a drive-by shooting – I guess somebody got into a car to leave, huh? And she says, yeah, reports are that a vehicle was involved, but they were following up.

   

Going on three weeks later, locals are getting a little antsy about what’s going on in Asheville.

For one thing, there have been plenty of search warrants and subpoenas issued, and, in some real news, APD believes they have seized the vehicle used in the drive-by attack no one will call a drive-by.

Intriguingly, the FBI has a ‘crucial’ piece of evidence, although no one has a clue what it could be. Nothing like a mystery on top of a crime.

Asheville police say investigators executed more than 25 search warrants and subpoenas this week as they continue searching for whoever killed two people and injured seven others in a shooting on Biltmore Avenue in July.

As the investigation heads into another weekend with no arrests, Interim Asheville Police Chief Jackie Stepp said a potentially crucial piece of evidence is now being analyzed by the FBI.

“Detectives have executed over 25 search warrants and subpoenas this week, collecting valuable digital evidence. We believe that one piece of evidence will provide crucial information to this investigation, and that piece of evidence is currently being analyzed by our partners at the FBI,” Stepp said.

Police have not disclosed exactly what that piece of evidence is, citing the ongoing investigation. Stepp said digital evidence collected by investigators can include information from phones, laptops and cameras.

…Last Friday, Asheville police said investigators had seized the vehicle they believe was involved in the shooting and identified several suspects and co-conspirators.

Besides the understandably upset citizens of Asheville, people who were offering rewards are also a bit miffed at the ‘unresponsiveness’ of local law enforcement as far as details concerning the mass drive-by shooting that wasn’t exactly a drive-by shooting on one of America’s Best Main Streets.

…On July 28, the Youth Peace & Justice Foundation said it had withdrawn its previously offered $5,000 reward for information related to the deadly shooting along Biltmore Avenue. The organization cited a lack of communication from city officials regarding the offer. But the Asheville Police Department says it was due to miscommunication.

The APD says it was caught in a SPAM filter. Everything’s better now.

OKAY

You know what I think is caught in a SPAM filter?

The interim chief’s progressive brain.

For one thing, it turns out, she has already said that she believes this was tied to another incident of retaliatory violence – aka ‘the latest chapter.’

…Stepp said the deadly episode was the “latest chapter” in an ongoing pattern of retaliatory violence across the city. One person was shot in the July 5 incident, she said, and investigators made an arrest in that case.

Oh, howdy – these are the hanger-outers she was referring to.

THIS IS A GROUP OF INDIVIDUALS WHO KNOW EACH OTHER

What is she trying desperately NOT to say here?

A local reporter kind of pins her to the mat, and oh, my goodness, the wiggle squiggling to get away!

WOULD YOU CHARACTERIZE THIS AS GANG VIOLENCE OR WOULD THAT BE JUST TWO GUYS AT A BAR WHO GOT INTO A FIGHT OVER SOMETHIN’…?

The liberal White female chief of police in Asheville NC BENDS OVER BACKWARDS to NOT call two groups of Black people committing a mass shooting in Asheville. pic.twitter.com/E4J2PIbDRQ

— D. Scott @eclipsethis2003 (@eclipsethis2003) July 27, 2026

IT’S NOT A GANG, IT’S A GROUP!

Seriously. The Asheville Chief of Police seriously says,

These are groups. These are GROUPS who are committing acts of violence against each other.

Now, I only have a few community college credits, and admittedly zero woke ones at that, but that spells G-A-N-G-S to me.

YMMV

When even Seattle (!) TV stations (granted, a Fox affiliate, but still) are calling you out, you are a laughingstock.

Police in Asheville, North Carolina, say a downtown shooting that killed two people and wounded seven was a direct retaliatory act, though they have declined to call the violence gang-related in the Blue Ridge tourist town. https://t.co/XPae6UyQW8

— FOX 13 Seattle (@fox13seattle) August 10, 2026

No, no, no, says Asheville PD.

This is not the same at all.

Asheville police say recent gun violence isn’t traditional gang activity but individuals involved in disputes or retaliation.

The APD’s tortured argle-bargle combined with what the local media called ‘a violent week’ in Asheville has local media asking neighboring law enforcement jurisdictions, ‘What’s ‘a gang’ mean to y’all?’

The answer that comes back is a pretty polite and carefully phrased ‘what you have, and ignoring it doesn’t make it go away.’

  

I’m not sure the ‘group’ argle-bargle is fooling anyone.

We choose not to go near downtown Asheville because of the gang related crimes. We now do our business and entertainment in Arden, just South of downtown. https://t.co/sXBf13v3nM

— Hazy Days (@HazyDaysGoneBy) August 10, 2026

And why would you worry about hurting these criminals’ feelings in the first place? Isn’t the city more important?

Well, then again, who are we talking about here?

Chief Stepp’s cops race to the scene of vandalized Flock cameras… 

Asheville, NC police deploying a forensics team immediately after a Flock ALPR camera pole was cut down. 😜🤪🙄🤡pic.twitter.com/VCqSIAB7qR

— WOLFDOG (@JP5671204772902) August 10, 2026

…as those are a high-priority, high-dollar item useful to the state.

Asheville police were at Carrier Park on Friday after a Flock camera there was vandalized. MORE: https://t.co/5iDpZq8SKd pic.twitter.com/w4xIEjoEEG

— WLOS (@WLOS_13) August 7, 2026

Matt Van Swol says they haven’t had a Republican mayor since 2009. And the homeless are everywhere.

I live in Buncombe County, where Asheville NC is located.

I used to live in Asheville city proper, but moved further out, mainly due to crime.

The city has fallen off a cliff, everyone knows it.

Homeless people are EVERYWHERE, in every park, taking shits on the street,… https://t.co/7G9TB50S8A pic.twitter.com/ijQqBnvhbx

— Matt Van Swol (@mattvanswol) April 25, 2026

As of 2024, more than 40 percent of the city’s police force had left. No wonder they spazz about the Flock cameras.

You can defund and demean cameras all you want, and they don’t get pissed off and leave.

…For example, the Greenville Police Department advertises a $50,645 starting salary, while Asheville’s is $47,461. It’s no surprise that Greenville has dozens more officers on the beat than Asheville, despite 20,000 fewer residents. 

However, many officers make the tradeoff of earning less to make a difference in their communities. That’s a core issue Asheville’s decision-makers have lost sight of: it’s not always about pay. People are often willing to make less money in a job where morale is high, and they feel valued.

That is not the case in Asheville.

This police morale crisis goes back to 2020, in the wake of the George Floyd murder protests. Jumping on the leftist bandwagon, the Asheville City Council entertained a cut to law enforcement funding by as much as 50%.

Some 80 officers left the force the following year, and the department was forced to suspend its responses to 10 different types of 911 calls. The APD is down 40% in staffing, and overtime pay to make up the shortfall has cost the city $2.5 million since 2020.

Meanwhile, the AVL Watchdog reported that, 20 years and 20,000 fewer residents ago, Asheville had 100 more officers on the beat than it does today. 

If you ask former APD officers why they left, many won’t cite pay. Instead, they say that, after 2020, they felt like the city government did not have their backs, and that they were scapegoated by council members to appease their ever-more-left-wing, radical constituents.

I guess if you have to – and are willing to – appease ‘ever more radical constituents‘ to keep your gig as police chief, that explains why it’s not a gang. It’ll be a group of hangers-on who know each other, shooting in retaliatory acts of violence until the cows come home.

Pretty soon, though, what you’ve turned your once famous-for-its-charm city into is just another progressive hellhole no one wants anything to do with.

For anyone but progressives, it would be such an easy choice.

Editor’s Note: The mainstream media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie about President Trump, his administration, and conservatives.

Help us continue to expose their left-wing bias by reading news you can trust. Join HotAir VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.