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.The early-morning gunfire erupted July 19 near Biltmore Avenue and Short Coxe Avenue, an area near downtown businesses and nightlife.The Asheville Police Department (APD) said officers responded to the scene at about 2:20 a.m.
and found multiple people suffering from gunshot wounds.Two people died at the scene despite life-saving efforts, while seven others were taken to Mission Hospital, authorities said.Detectives recovered numerous shell casings and identified what police described as a large crime scene.GUNMAN CHARGED AFTER WOUNDING 9 IN TUCSON NIGHTLIFE SHOOTING BEFORE COP TAKES HIM DOWNPeople walk through downtown Asheville, North Carolina.
(Getty Images)The department initially said evidence suggested the shooting may have been connected to an earlier gun violence incident.Days later, Interim Police Chief Jackie Stepp said investigators had determined it was "a direct retaliatory act" tied to a July 5 shooting at an apartment complex.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.People walk through downtown Asheville, North Carolina.(Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)But the chief declined to classify the violence as gang-related at a community briefing on July 24, when reporters pressed her about whether the people involved belonged to rival gangs or families."These are two groups of individuals," Stepp said at the briefing.
She said the groups had ties because the people involved knew one another and had committed "ongoing retaliatory acts" against each other.Interim Asheville Police Chief Jackie Stepp speaks during a community briefing about...