ASHEVILLE - Rising gun violence, a problem highlighted by city's top municipal staffer, is being caused in part by gangs, police said recently.

The topic is a minefield that includes deep-seated distrust, with some African American residents saying a focus on gangs misses core problems and leads to biased policing.

It's into this difficult territory the Asheville Police Department's new chief, Chris Bailey, has stepped. Bailey, who started July 29, must try to stop shootings while also building bridges to black residents who have faced years of disproportionate policing.

Bailey will draw on experience combating record-high homicide rates in Indianapolis, where he served for two decades.

The former deputy chief with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said he used a dual approach: working with state and federal law enforcement as well as neighborhoods. Bailey, who is white, said he gave communities access to police data and tried to empower their own efforts to stop gun violence.

"We have to explain to people why we are are doing it and show them the data and ask them to be involved in the solution," he said.

In terms of gangs or criminal groups, Bailey said IMPD concentrated both on individuals and groups.

Asheville officers, as recently as July 16, have done gang-related enforcement, according to APD records obtained from the magistrate's office.

That comes despite a warning from one nationally recognized neighborhood policing expert that focusing on gangs can be counterproductive. It also feeds long-term distrust, some residents say.

"In a perfect world, it would be ideal if our community could partner with law enforcement in order to keep our streets a little safer," said Maria Young, a resident of the historically black Shiloh neighborhood. "But our reality with law enforcement will not allow that to happen, historically or presently."

A rise in violence

Since 2016, the city's gun violence (homicides, robberies and aggravated assaults) has risen 55%, according to a June 25 APD presentation to the City Council.

Debra Campbell, the city's first black city manager, highlighted the problem, calling it "disturbing."

Police said that from Jan. 1-June 23, seven of the top 10 places for calls about a person with a gun, shots fired or a gunshot wound were from these neighborhoods and surrounding areas: Pisgah View, Deaverview, Hillcrest, Shiloh, Livingston, Burton Street and Klondyke. Those neighborhoods also are home to some of the highest numbers of Asheville's poor and minority residents.

And two of Asheville's three homicides this year have happened there: the June 18 shooting of a pregnant woman, Tiyquasha Antwonique Simuel, 24, in Deaverview; and the July 11 killing of Justin "Marshall" Spry, 37, who was shot seven times at his Shiloh home.

In another high-profile firearm death, Derrick Lee Jr., 12, was gunned down July 1, 2018, at Lee Walker Heights, a subsidized housing complex that is now empty and scheduled for demolition.

Along with homicides, Asheville has seen a large number of nonfatal shootings. Here are some notable ones from 2019 police records:

In response, police formed a new gun violence task force with state and federal agents and said they will deploy more resources to areas with the most shootings. Working closely with residents and business will be important, APD officials said, but lack of people willing to talk to police continues to be a major hurdle.

Pushback as police link guns to gangs

In the June presentation to the council requested by Campbell, Deputy Police Chief Jim Baumstark linked the gun violence in part to gangs.

It was an unexpected statement about a city best known for a laid-back bohemian vibe and craft breweries.

The Citizen Times sought more information. Police responded with striking numbers, saying there were 65 gangs in and around Asheville and 1,100 gang members. Gangs were growing, police said, with the six most prominent in Livingston, Lee Walker Heights, Shiloh, Pisgah View, Deaverview and South Asheville. Most of the locations correlated to areas with high gun violence, as well as high poverty and and larger minority populations.

Criticism came swiftly from African American residents and civil rights advocates who said the numbers vilified all the neighborhoods' residents and could lead to a general crackdown on young black people. Critics pointed to racial disparities found recently in APD traffic stops and arrests for resisting an officer, as well as the 2017 beating of a black pedestrian that came to light after a leaked police body camera video.

In a July 20 op-ed in the Citizen Times, Councilman Keith Young said the root issue wasn't gangs, but poverty.

"People who see hope for a better future rarely pick up a gun and turn it on others or themselves," Young said.

APD spokeswoman Jerri Jameson offered a sweeping apology for the way in which the gang numbers were presented — but did not retract or back down on the data. APD declined further Citizen Times public records requests, with Jameson saying state law allows police to withhold material that is considered criminal intelligence or part of a criminal investigation.

Unanswered Citizen Times public records requests include:

the full police gang and gang member lists;

the reasons the six gangs were considered the most prominent;

documentation of gangs' involvement in gun violence;

and the numbers behind the growth police say they've seen in the groups.

APD has continued anti-gang enforcement, according to a July 16 search warrant obtained by the Citizen Times for an apartment just east of Pisgah View. Officers in the warrant said they wanted to stop drug trafficking and other criminal activities disrupting a West Asheville neighborhood of formerly homeless people housed through the nonprofit Homeward Bound.

One man, police said, didn't have the "mental capacity to prevent individuals from using his apartment."

Along with multiple calls about criminal activities, police said they saw several "validated gang members" in and near the apartment.

In the warrant, officers said they were seeking evidence including guns, drugs and items indicating the presence of the "Insane Gangster Disciples/Folk Nation" gang, a group not among what APD called the six most prominent gangs.

In the end, police seized two guns, drug paraphernalia and a cellphone from Travis Jerell Jordan, who was charged with three counts of felony breaking and entering and five misdemeanors. The warrant did not name Jordan as a gang member.

Should police focus on gangs?

The large majority of violent crime is committed by a very small demographic, said nationally recognized neighborhood policing expert David Kennedy — "one half of 1%" of most cities.

And the targets are people in the same demographic, according to Kennedy, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York whose field work sites include Asheville.

The groups committing the crimes look nothing like what most people would think of as gangs — they generally marginalized, he said, and don't see the police as helpful or a legitimate authority. Violence for them is a means of protection or vengeance, Kennedy said.

"It’s true that when a neighborhood is having a homicide and gun violence problem that it’s very likely that these groups are there and connected to the issue. It’s also overwhelmingly true that virtually everyone in the neighborhood is not connected to the group."

But people outside those neighborhoods, including law enforcement, he said, often treat everyone inside the same.

Michael Hayes, founder of Urban Arts Institute of WNC, works in many of Asheville's poorest communities and said he fears that will happen with increased talk of gangs. Hayes said he worries police may apply "zero-tolerance" policies.

"Now because we have so many so-called gang members, does that give them the right to shoot first and ask questions later?"

Indianapolis approach

Bailey said he's acutely aware of negative consequences from aggressive police sweeps and similar tactics, having performed them as a young officer.

As a higher raking officer in Indianapolis, Bailey said he changed direction, using data to track "trigger pullers." He shared that information with residents in areas suffering from high crime, he said. Gang or group affiliations could be important, Bailey said, but not necessarily.

"Not all gang members are trigger pullers and not all trigger pullers are gang members."

In 2015, when the Midwestern city was reeling from homicides, the violence hit the Butler-Tarkington neighborhood particularly hard. Deshaun Swanson, 10, was attending a Sept. 19 memorial service at a home with his mother and older brother when he was killed in a spray of bullets. Three other people were wounded.

Bailey said he believes the shooting was related to two opposing groups whom he didn't think of as gangs. The case was never solved, but the chief said he believes those responsible were arrested for other crimes.

The Rev. Charles Harrison, of Indianapolis, said that in the wake of Swanson's killing, Bailey came to residents.

"He connected with churches, the neighborhood association and other community stakeholders and together we came up with a strategy to really address the problem," Harrison said. "So, it didn’t come off as just a law enforcement initiative."

Residents started neighborhood walks and zeroed in on young men, the most likely to be involved in crime. Harrison said they tried to help them stay in school or get work and find other ways feel invested in the community. For the next four years, while killings continued around the city, Butler-Tarkington went years without a homicide.

The Ten Point Coalition Model started in Butler-Tarkington spread to other parts of Indianapolis. Harrison now is invited to other cities to talk about the approach.

He said one important aspect of getting residents involved is "de-racializing" the issue of violence.

"If I'm standing out front and we are giving the OK, then it doesn’t become police vs. the black community."

Hired for his approach

In picking Bailey, Campbell said he stood out from other "high-caliber" candidates for reasons including an his work with residents most affected by gun violence.

"His passion for understanding and working with the community to break cycles and prevent crime were evident," the city manager said.

But it remains to be seen if Bailey's approach to policing a population of 800,000 will translate to a city just over one-tenth that size that is split by growing wealth and racial disparities.

Asheville police have tried neighborhood-centered efforts before. Officers worked with residents in Deaverview after a 2016 spike of firearm-related calls, resulting in a marked drop in shootings. But just a few years later, the West Asheville community is again beset by violence with Deaverview second on the list for gun calls and the site of one of the year's three homicides.

Asheville City Council members don't hire or directly supervise the chief, and have generally withheld their opinions on Bailey. But Keith Young offered a brief comment, saying he didn't like the way APD presented the gang information, but liked what he had heard so far from department's new head.

"At first glace, based on some of his responses, it appears someone might finally understand it all," the councilman said.

But Maria Young, the Shiloh resident, said Bailey will have to work hard to make inroads.

"The distrust of law enforcement transcends generations with valid reasoning, and our local law enforcement is not exempt from that."