News

Armed patron at Club Phoenix convicted of assaulting officers

By Lightning Reports, Published: November 10, 2023

A Henderson County Superior Court jury on Wednesday convicted a 20-year-old Asheville man on a charge of assaulting a law enforcement officer with a firearm before Superior Court Judge George Bell sentenced the man, Esgardo Diaz, to at least three years two months and up four years and 10 months, District Attorney R. Andrew Murray announced.

Court records and the testimony at trial showed that officers with the Hendersonville Police Department responded at 3:25 a.m. Aug. 27, 2022, to a noise complaint at the Club Phoenix Nightclub at 924 Seventh Avenue East. The first two officers to arrive found themselves in a chaotic situation amid a parking lot full of cars, a chartered party bus and numerous club patrons scattered about. Upon entering the parking area, the officers witnessed a vehicle back into another vehicle and flee.

The officers immediately pursued the hit-and-run vehicle and radioed for officer backup to respond to the Club Phoenix parking lot. The next set of officers on scene found the parking lot to be equally chaotic with a large number of pedestrians milling about, and an unconscious individual laying on the pavement.

Simultaneously, responding officers observed an individual being escorted out of the Club Phoenix Nightclub by two privately retained security guards. Immediately after the security guards released the person, officers heard a fight break out in the street. The first officer to arrive in the vicinity of the fight witnessed several individuals scrambling away from the fight epicenter and the young male that had just been released from the security guards, brandishing a silver pistol with his finger on the trigger. The first responding officer repeatedly shouted “gun, gun, gun, police, drop the gun” while grabbing Diaz and attempting to immobilize his arm in order to disarm him.

A second responding officer was maneuvering to assist his fellow officer with securing the weapon when the defendant pulled his arm free and pointed the pistol, with his finger on the trigger, directly in the face of the second officer, at point blank range. Both officers continued to scream, “drop the gun, drop the gun” as they pinned the defendant to the ground and pried his hand from the pistol.

Upon further investigation, once the Diaz was detained, it was determined that he did not have identification on him, was only 19 years of age, appeared to be impaired and was carrying a fully loaded gun with a bullet in the chamber.

Murray commended the Hendersonville police officers for their bravery, dedication to duty, and their professionalism.

“Their actions undoubtedly prevented an extremely bad situation from becoming much worse,” he said in a statement.

 He also commended the hard work, sacrifices, and dedication of these selfless public servants that literally put their lives on the line to keep the members of the public at the scene of this event from being harmed and possibly murdered.