News

City asks court to release bodycam footage of fatal shooting

By Bill Moss, Published: February 28, 2024

Hendersonville police have petitioned a Superior Court judge to release to the victim’s mother four police videos taken at the scene of the shooting outside a bar that killed a 30-year-old Asheville man on Thanksgiving night.

Patricia Ann King, the mother of Elijah Edwards Timmons III, has repeatedly implored authorities to reverse their decision not to file charges after their announcement on Dec. 10 that they had found the shooting to be self-defense.

“I really want to just say that I have asked on all levels to call attention to what has been done and what hasn't been done,” King told the Hendersonville City Council on Feb. 7. “My son's case has been treated like a speeding ticket.”

At the end of that meeting, City Manager John Connet made a lengthy defense of the conduct of city police officers as they responded to a chaotic crime scene in the predawn darkness outside the Orchard Bar & Grill on Four Seasons Boulevard at Dana Road. Dozens of people who had attended a private Thanksgiving night party at the bar spilled out into the parking lot and lingered around parked cars, the investigation showed.

“While absolutely the city of Hendersonville is very sorry that Mr. Timmons was shot and killed on Thanksgiving evening, I will remind the public and the community that this was two individuals who got into a fight and chose to bring guns out in a private parking lot,” Connet said.

“After working with the chief and talking to the police department, I am assured that our police department has done everything within their legal powers at this point to investigate this matter,” he said. “I will say based on the evidence — the video evidence and evidence that we have received — they have done everything they can. No one is more disheartened than the Hendersonville police department that they could not charge an individual with a crime in this particular case.”

City petitions court to release bodycam footage

On Jan. 23 City Attorney Angela Beeker on behalf of Police Chief Blair Myhand filed a petition to release four videos — three from body-worn cameras and one from a dashcam — that depict officers’ “interactions with Ms. King.” Under state law, the videos “depict the death of her son in that his body can be seen in the footage,” Beeker said in the request.

The footage is from bodycams worn by officers Jon Wing, Jacob Smith and Michael Paparozzi and from the dashcam in Smith’s cruiser.

“The chief has told me that our officers went above and beyond to control the situation, to protect Ms. King — the video shows this very much — working to console her,” Connet told the council. “It was a very tense situation at 2 o'clock in the morning with a large crowd with weapons we knew were there.”

The city’s petition to release the video is scheduled to be heard next week by Chief Resident Superior Court Judge Peter Knight.

‘I have not been listened to’

King has been unassuaged by any of her interactions with Hendersonville investigators, Chief Myhand, the city attorney, Henderson County sheriff’s officers or the sheriff’s general counsel, Ron Justice.

“I feel I feel like every time I've spoken to an officer, anybody at any job at the police department (or) sheriff's department, I have been dumbed down,” she told the city council. “I have not been listened to and I have basically been told that I have not seen what I have seen. … I am still gravely in shock. I am sickened by the fact that I'm not able to grieve for my son in the right way because I'm forced to make people that already are being paid to do a job do their job.”

Myhand, in an hour-long interview with the Hendersonville Lightning on Jan. 10, described how he and officers and detectives had reviewed all available videos from the scene, interviewed witnesses and investigated everything in depth. He also reviewed a lengthy internal affairs investigation into the complaint by King that officers used excessive force when they arrested her for assaulting an officer. She is charged with resisting arrest and punching a sheriff’s deputy in the face with her fist. Myhand cleared the city officers of wrongdoing.

D.A. calls shooting self-defense

After reviewing the city police investigation, District Attorney Andrew Murray made a finding that the shooting was self-defense because Timmons had first fired at the man who returned fire and killed him. Both Myhand and Murray told the Lightning they wished more eyewitnesses had come forward and said they would gladly reopen the case if new information came to light. Connet told the council the same thing.

“I will say if anybody wanted to come forward, the police department would welcome any additional evidence (or) video and would like nothing more than to charge somebody with a crime,” he said.

Police officers “have spent countless hours meeting with Ms. King and her representatives,” he said. Beeker, the city attorney, “one Friday afternoon spent four hours with Ms. King and her representative and showed Ms. King what legally she could see.”

Connet again emphasized to council members and the public the challenge law officers faced in responding to “a very tense situation, very chaotic, after gunfire, at 2 o'clock in the morning.”

“It is easy for folks to Monday morning quarterback sitting in this room,” he said, “but they were not there at 2 o'clock in the morning trying to maintain order and protect the witnesses and to protect other people in the parking lot.”

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CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story contained an error in this sentence: Beeker, the city attorney, “one Friday afternoon spent four hours with Ms. King and her representative and showed Ms. King what legally she could see.” The earlier version incorrectly said "illegally" instead of "legally."