Asheville police receiving tips in home invasions – Asheville Citizen
July 30, 2011 by admin
Filed under Choosing Lingerie
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ASHEVILLE — City police continued Friday to follow community-generated leads in their search for those involved in a series of home invasions that have shaken residents of several city neighborhoods.
Lt. Wally Welch said an arrest in one of the six cases is possible early next week, based on tips from the community. He said he could not comment on whether the tips were related to four violent West Asheville robberies. Police are also investigating a home invasion in Montford and another in Kenilworth.
“I feel really good we may have an arrest by next week,” Welch said.
Meanwhile, the crimes continue to be a hot topic as more people learn about them and join the communitywide discussion on crime and safety. Tony Gutierrez, 32, did not learn about the robberies until Thursday. He joined West Asheville Watch, a Facebook community forum, the same day.
Gutierrez said the home invasion robberies concern him more than burglaries.
“I’ve been worried before that someone would do it while I was gone or while I was at work,” he said. “I never thought about armed robbery. That’s really crazy.”
Jonna Eichenlaub, 27, lives in the area and works at Universal Joint. She’s one of two employees there who knows a victim of the recent robberies.
“A couple weeks ago, it was all anybody was talking about,” she said.
Eichenlaub doesn’t think the home invasions will tarnish the reputation of West Asheville.
“It’s just making those individuals look bad,” she said. “West Asheville is a really close community, so I think we try to look out for one another.”
Welch encourages residents of any neighborhood to get to know their community resource officer. For example, he said people can tip officers about drug dealing or voice concerns about anything else suspicious in the neighborhood.
“That could really get the ball rolling for extended community assistance,” Welch said. “Those guys can work wonders in a neighborhood if they have community backing.”
