Latest / APD Pod Squad / Season 2, Episode 5; Detective Jacob Kielson, SPO Debbie LeCroy, Technology Specialist Albert Eastwood, and the History Minute with Hannah Silberman

Transcript

Season 2, Episode 5; Detective Jacob Kielson, SPO Debbie LeCroy, Technology Specialist Albert Eastwood, and the History Minute with Hannah Silberman · APD Pod Squad

0:00
SPEAKER_05: This is the APD Fox Squad.
0:05
SPEAKER_05: Coming up in this episode, who exactly is Albert Eastwood?
0:09
SPEAKER_05: His friends call Bert, APD technology specialist by day, rock and roll star by night.
0:15
SPEAKER_05: That's right.
0:16
SPEAKER_05: When the office light goes off, the stage lights come on.
0:19
SPEAKER_05: Bert is the lead singer of a band called Aces and Ace.
0:22
SPEAKER_05: Maybe you've seen and heard him around town.
0:24
SPEAKER_05: We'll get the backstory.
0:26
SPEAKER_05: Also, getting to know new detective Jacob Keelston, who was recently promoted.
0:30
SPEAKER_05: We'll find out more about the Western North Carolina native and what he's looking forward to at the new position.
0:35
SPEAKER_05: Senior police officer Debbie LaCroix joins me from the community engagement division.
0:39
SPEAKER_05: They're staying busy.
0:40
SPEAKER_05: And in the History Minute with Hannah Silberman, many of you are familiar with the story of the outlaw Will Harris.
0:47
SPEAKER_05: We'll go back to 1906 for that wild ride that ended up claiming the lives of two APD officers.
0:54
SPEAKER_05: It's all coming up on season two, episode five of the APD Pod Squad.
1:01
SPEAKER_05: I'm joined now by technology specialist Albert Eastwood, as friends call him Bert.
1:06
SPEAKER_05: I'm going to call you Bert.
1:07
SPEAKER_05: Thank you.
1:07
SPEAKER_05: Thank you for joining me.
1:08
SPEAKER_05: Hey, thank you for having me.
1:09
SPEAKER_05: So the Bert Eastwood story, boy, this is something.
1:12
SPEAKER_05: This is uh the alter ego came out the other night.
1:15
SPEAKER_05: You're like Clark Kent.
1:17
SPEAKER_03: You know, you know, I had to find a phone booth to change into right quick after I left P.
1:21
SPEAKER_03: Day, yeah.
1:22
SPEAKER_05: Mild-mannered Bert Eastwood by day, rock and roll star by night.
1:27
SPEAKER_05: So I know that some of our listeners were at the 150th anniversary party that we recently had at the Orange Peel with the Asheville Police Department, and the band was Aces and Eights fronted by you.
1:41
SPEAKER_05: Craig.
1:42
SPEAKER_05: Burn Eastwood.
1:43
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
1:44
SPEAKER_03: So how long have you been doing this?
1:46
SPEAKER_03: I joined the band probably two and a half, three years ago, and there's a story behind it, and I'll go ahead and tell you.
1:53
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
1:53
SPEAKER_03: Uh the drummer and I, we go to church together, and uh we're in a praise team.
1:57
SPEAKER_03: Of course, I sing and he plays drums.
1:59
SPEAKER_03: We're close friends, and uh he told me uh one day that uh the band that he was forming needed somebody to sing.
2:08
SPEAKER_03: And uh typically I would sing country music.
2:11
SPEAKER_03: I'm not really a a rock and roll type singer if I had my choice.
2:15
SPEAKER_03: But he says, you know, we need somebody, we cannot find a singer.
2:18
SPEAKER_03: We need somebody, it's kind of hard to practice without any vocals.
2:22
SPEAKER_03: So I said, Well, yeah, I'll come to your pra I mean he lives about a quarter of a mile from me.
2:25
SPEAKER_03: I said, I'll come to practice and you know it's very convenient.
2:27
SPEAKER_03: Sure.
2:28
SPEAKER_03: I'll come to practice and uh get with you guys and sing.
2:30
SPEAKER_03: And uh one thing led to another, and I turned into the lead singer.
2:34
SPEAKER_03: So there you go.
2:36
SPEAKER_03: I love that.
2:36
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
2:37
SPEAKER_05: Aces and eights.
2:38
SPEAKER_05: So they were already a band, and you were just like the the singer that got added?
2:42
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
2:42
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
2:43
SPEAKER_03: When I when I came on board with them, uh they they uh they had a guitar bass and a drum, and we added myself and the other guitar player, and then of course the most important person, our sound guy, he came on board after that.
2:56
SPEAKER_03: But yeah.
2:57
SPEAKER_03: These guys that I'm the musicians that I'm there with are very talented.
3:01
SPEAKER_03: They've all been in bands, been doing this stuff most of their lives, and are very good, and they uh kind of taken me under their wing and uh one thing led to another, and here we are.
3:11
SPEAKER_05: For people that know you, I'm guessing it came as a little bit of a surprise.
3:15
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
3:15
SPEAKER_05: Because there was a few folks that knew that you were in that band and you were playing at the thing, and we're expecting to see you there, but surely there was a few that didn't know that you'd be there singing.
3:24
SPEAKER_03: I have since been told that they had no idea that uh I would be there and be uh singing in a band.
3:30
SPEAKER_03: It was quite a surprise to them, yes.
3:32
SPEAKER_05: What's Bert doing up there?
3:34
SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
3:35
SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
3:36
SPEAKER_05: Then like Bert's rocking out.
3:38
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
3:39
SPEAKER_03: We play what we consider the best music of any time, the era of the 70s and 80s, classic rock.
3:45
SPEAKER_03: Uh had some funk in there.
3:47
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
3:48
SPEAKER_03: Uh we we consider that the best music.
3:50
SPEAKER_03: I just wish we had some younger folks there that uh maybe would have liked some of the newer uh stuff, but we play what we play.
3:57
SPEAKER_05: I heard some Stone Temple pilots.
3:58
SPEAKER_05: I mean you leaked into the nineties a little bit there.
4:02
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
4:02
SPEAKER_05: I'm a big fan of collective soul.
4:03
SPEAKER_05: Yes, sir.
4:04
SPEAKER_05: So I I'm I look old, but I'm young at heart.
4:07
SPEAKER_05: So I I enjoyed all that music.
4:08
SPEAKER_05: The 80s, uh 70s and 80s, and of course the former classic rock DJ, I know all that stuff.
4:14
SPEAKER_05: Yes, you do.
4:15
SPEAKER_05: But you know, the the music that I grew up with was all that eighties and even into the nineties, the the Stone Temple Pilots, the Collective Soul.
4:22
SPEAKER_05: And then I acquired all the other stuff a little bit later.
4:25
SPEAKER_05: Sure.
4:25
SPEAKER_05: Enjoy the heck out of it, but you are absolutely right, that is the music.
4:29
SPEAKER_05: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
4:29
SPEAKER_05: In my opinion, it is.
4:30
SPEAKER_05: I mean, it's just you don't know too many people when you start playing that music that's not tapping their toes or at least you know enjoying it right now.
4:37
SPEAKER_05: Well, it's timeless.
4:38
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
4:38
SPEAKER_03: You know, uh young kids are still listening to, you know, Leonard Skinner and ACDC and uh some of the old bands.
4:47
SPEAKER_03: So it it is timeless.
4:48
SPEAKER_05: Aaron Powell So where did you grow up?
4:50
SPEAKER_05: Well, this is a question we always ask about everyone that sits down for the first time.
4:53
SPEAKER_05: Where were you born?
4:54
SPEAKER_03: I was born in Cumberland, Maryland.
4:55
SPEAKER_03: And uh when I was young, my dad had a job that uh kind of moved us around a lot.
5:00
SPEAKER_03: I've lived in all over the eastern seaboard.
5:03
SPEAKER_03: I've lived in born in Cumberland, Maryland, lived in Huntsville, Alabama, lived in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, but we settled in Morganton, North Carolina.
5:10
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
5:11
SPEAKER_05: Cumberland, that's a that's a hot spot for Civil War battlefields, right?
5:14
SPEAKER_05: It is right around.
5:15
SPEAKER_05: There's quite a few.
5:16
SPEAKER_05: It is.
5:17
SPEAKER_05: I'm a I'm a little bit of a Civil War kind of uh historian.
5:20
SPEAKER_05: Uh I love visiting the battlefields and that there's several of them right near there.
5:25
SPEAKER_05: It is, and it's a beautiful part of the country.
5:27
SPEAKER_05: It is.
5:27
SPEAKER_05: It's gorgeous.
5:28
SPEAKER_05: The rolling hills and uh the horse culture there is big in that Maryland area.
5:33
SPEAKER_05: People don't quite realize that everyone thinks Kentucky when they think about horses, but that Baltimore and Cumberland area of Maryland is a big horse area.
5:42
SPEAKER_05: A lot of high dollar horses.
5:43
SPEAKER_05: Yes in there.
5:44
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
5:45
SPEAKER_05: Is it one of the really big racetracks there, too, like part of the um I forget which one, because you know you have the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, the whatever the those other ones are.
5:55
SPEAKER_05: I I swear one of the big ones was there in Maryland, but I could be.
5:58
SPEAKER_05: I'm not a big fan of I don't follow horse racing.
6:00
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, me neither, not so much.
6:02
SPEAKER_05: I I can't I don't know.
6:03
SPEAKER_05: All right.
6:03
SPEAKER_05: So and then the other question we always ask is the one thing, and you can't say that I'm a lead singer of a rock and roll band, because now we all know that.
6:10
SPEAKER_05: The one thing that most people don't know about you.
6:13
SPEAKER_03: I probably would say I'm somewhat of a car enthusiast.
6:16
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
6:17
SPEAKER_03: I love uh cars.
6:18
SPEAKER_03: I before I uh got on uh with the highway patrol, I was uh a mechanic.
6:24
SPEAKER_03: My dad had a tire store and garage there in Morgan, and I worked for him and uh for many years.
6:30
SPEAKER_03: I love cars, I love how they work, to know how they work.
6:33
SPEAKER_03: So I would say I'm a car enthusiast, more particularly a Corvette enthusiast.
6:37
SPEAKER_03: I love Corvettes.
6:38
SPEAKER_05: Have you talked with Doug Ozer, who was on the podcast a few episodes ago?
6:43
SPEAKER_05: He works on transmissions, also works to work loves to work on cars.
6:46
SPEAKER_03: I did not know that.
6:47
SPEAKER_03: No.
6:48
SPEAKER_05: I'll have to strike that conversation up to him.
6:50
SPEAKER_05: I'm not sure if it's just to keep him running so he can keep coming back and forth to work.
6:53
SPEAKER_05: He kind of said it that way, but he uh uh his whole life he says he's worked on cars, transmissions, things along those lines.
6:59
SPEAKER_05: So now you got something you could talk about.
7:01
SPEAKER_05: I'll hit him up uh right after we get out of here.
7:03
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
7:04
SPEAKER_05: So you mentioned your previous career.
7:05
SPEAKER_05: We know that you're a technology specialist with the Asheville Police Department, and we'll get to that here in just a second.
7:12
SPEAKER_05: But your previous incarnation was not with the Asheville Police Department, but it was with law enforcement.
7:17
SPEAKER_05: Correct.
7:17
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
7:17
SPEAKER_03: Tell us about that.
7:18
SPEAKER_03: Yes, I uh when uh uh had the opportunity when my dad decided to uh close the shop there in Morganton, I'd always had an interest in law enforcement and more specifically the highway patrol.
7:29
SPEAKER_03: I wanted to be a trooper and uh had the opportunity before I got much older, I was in my mid-20s.
7:35
SPEAKER_03: I uh applied for the Highway Patrol and was lucky enough to get accepted on my first uh go-round with the application process, and I joined the Highway Patrol in 1990, and then I retired in 2018.
7:46
SPEAKER_03: So uh yeah, I was a trooper for 28 plus years and uh it was a great career.
7:50
SPEAKER_03: Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.
7:51
SPEAKER_05: And you made it almost all the way to the top of the ranks, right?
7:54
SPEAKER_05: You retired as a major.
7:55
SPEAKER_05: Yes, correct.
7:56
SPEAKER_05: Which in the world of troopers, that's like our that would be our deputy chief, right?
8:01
SPEAKER_05: Kind of the equivalent?
8:02
SPEAKER_03: I would say yes.
8:05
SPEAKER_03: There are five majors on the Highway Patrol in an organization of two thousand, so there's five majors, yes.
8:11
SPEAKER_05: That's a pretty big deal.
8:12
SPEAKER_03: Well, you're downplaying yourself, Bert.
8:14
SPEAKER_03: Well it it uh the Highway Patrol was good to me, yes.
8:18
SPEAKER_03: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
8:18
SPEAKER_03: Do you still have the hat?
8:19
SPEAKER_03: I mean, Oh, absolutely.
8:21
SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
8:22
SPEAKER_05: What's it like putting that hat on for the first time?
8:24
SPEAKER_05: Well, I tell you what, it's kind of got this legendary status.
8:26
SPEAKER_03: It is, it is, and it's an earned privilege, uh we say to you gotta earn that hat.
8:32
SPEAKER_03: And we're right proud of that.
8:34
SPEAKER_03: Running close second is the license plate uh on your patrol car because that is uh a lot of people don't realize it, but a license plate on highway patrol car is seniority based.
8:43
SPEAKER_06: Oh.
8:44
SPEAKER_03: The longer you're on the highway patrol, your license plate decreases.
8:48
SPEAKER_05: So uh the numbers reflect your time of service.
8:52
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
8:52
SPEAKER_03: Yes, and it's rank oriented too, but yes, it's very uh trooper will fight you over there, license plate.
8:58
SPEAKER_05: Do you remember what your last one was, which would have been the highest rank you achieved?
9:02
SPEAKER_03: It was one oh four.
9:03
SPEAKER_03: Colonel's one hundred, I was one oh four.
9:05
SPEAKER_03: Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.
9:05
SPEAKER_05: So is there one that's just one?
9:07
SPEAKER_05: Is there well yes, actually the governor is one.
9:10
SPEAKER_05: Oh, okay.
9:10
SPEAKER_05: So the governor has his vehicles is one.
9:13
SPEAKER_03: He has a state vehicle and it's one.
9:15
SPEAKER_03: Is there a two or two?
9:17
SPEAKER_03: I would assume the lieutenant governor, but I don't know.
9:20
SPEAKER_03: But you were one oh, that's impressive.
9:22
SPEAKER_03: Well, like I said, the patrol was good to me.
9:25
SPEAKER_03: It was a it was a great organization.
9:26
SPEAKER_03: How long did you spend on the road before you were kind of bumped into the office?
9:30
SPEAKER_03: I was uh eight years as a trooper.
9:32
SPEAKER_03: Mm-hmm.
9:33
SPEAKER_03: Uh so I worked the road eight years and then uh was promoted to sergeant.
9:37
SPEAKER_03: Sergeant is kind of what's a first line supervisor, so you're you're kind of balancing uh office work, plus you still work the road, you work closely with the the troopers on the road.
9:46
SPEAKER_03: So it's kind of uh uh in between, and then when you go to first sergeants in the next rank, that's when you're kind of glued to the office, so to speak.
9:53
SPEAKER_03: That's a lot of administrative work there.
9:55
SPEAKER_03: What region were you mostly?
9:57
SPEAKER_03: I started out in Taylorsville as a trooper, and then I went to uh Fayetteville for two years.
10:02
SPEAKER_03: Oof.
10:03
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that was that was quite different.
10:05
SPEAKER_03: Uh culture shock there from Taylorsville to Fayetteville.
10:08
SPEAKER_03: Uh from Fayetteville, I went uh came back home to Morganton, and then from Morganton I went to Ahoskey, North Carolina.
10:15
SPEAKER_03: Have you ever you know where that's at?
10:16
SPEAKER_05: I have never heard of that one.
10:18
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
10:18
SPEAKER_03: Northeast of Raleigh.
10:19
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
10:20
SPEAKER_03: Uh North you ever heard of the Dismal Swamp?
10:23
SPEAKER_05: I that term has been I lived in Fayetteville, so people mentioned that before.
10:27
SPEAKER_03: It's up on the Virginia line.
10:29
SPEAKER_03: All right.
10:29
SPEAKER_03: Uh the Dismal Swamp, and and it's it's very accurate in its description.
10:33
SPEAKER_03: So it's kind of dismal.
10:34
SPEAKER_03: Is it just like that?
10:35
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's not much going on in that area.
10:37
SPEAKER_03: But then I came back to uh Wilkesboro, spent uh three years in Wilkesboro.
10:42
SPEAKER_03: Then I went to uh Newton.
10:43
SPEAKER_05: Uh, did they still have the track in Wilkesboro when you were there?
10:45
SPEAKER_05: Was it still operating?
10:46
SPEAKER_03: No, no, it was it wasn't operating.
10:48
SPEAKER_03: I did work that race a couple times when I was a trooper.
10:51
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
10:51
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
10:51
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
10:52
SPEAKER_03: And then then from Newton uh Hickory, I went to uh came here to Asheville, and uh that's where I got to work with my buddy Jimmy Wingo.
11:01
SPEAKER_03: Uh we spent three years working here together, and then from Asheville I went to Raleigh, and that's where I spent my last year.
11:06
SPEAKER_05: You know, you mentioned uh working that one race.
11:08
SPEAKER_05: The one thing I do notice, like at major sporting events in North Carolina, a lot of times is the presence of uh state troopers.
11:14
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
11:14
SPEAKER_05: So did you have any uh big like football games that you did or some races that you did?
11:18
SPEAKER_03: Oh yeah.
11:19
SPEAKER_03: I've worked uh the Charlotte race, I've worked the Rockingham race when it was going, the Wilkesboro race, Panthers game, Special Olympics uh in Raleigh in uh the early two thousands.
11:30
SPEAKER_03: Big golf events?
11:31
SPEAKER_03: You could do U.S.
11:32
SPEAKER_03: Open Pine.
11:32
SPEAKER_03: I never did go to the golf.
11:34
SPEAKER_03: I don't play golf, so I didn't have any interest.
11:36
SPEAKER_03: And that's that's kind of a reward for a trooper.
11:38
SPEAKER_03: Right.
11:39
SPEAKER_03: Uh you know, if you got a big race fan that's a trooper, you you want to you don't want to send somebody that hates racing to a race.
11:45
SPEAKER_03: So you know you kinda Mazill do a better job.
11:47
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
11:48
SPEAKER_05: So what year did you retire from the troopers and then you took some time off before you joined the APD?
11:53
SPEAKER_03: I retired uh from the patrol in 2018.
11:56
SPEAKER_03: I came to work here in Ashville P.
11:58
SPEAKER_03: D.
11:58
SPEAKER_03: at the end of 2022, right after I uh retired, I had some stuff I wanted to do around the house, one of which being remodeled bathroom.
12:06
SPEAKER_03: Well, I did most of all of the work myself except the plumbing.
12:09
SPEAKER_03: I was a little scared of that.
12:10
SPEAKER_03: Well, I had a buddy that was a plumber, he's a retired law enforcement officer that uh was a plumber before we got into law enforcement.
12:18
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
12:18
SPEAKER_03: And I hired him to come and uh plumb the bathroom.
12:22
SPEAKER_03: Well, as he was working, uh I was there with him, and I'm not the kind of guy that if I see you working and you need a screwdriver, I'm gonna hand it to you, or if you need this, you know.
12:30
SPEAKER_03: So one thing led to another at the end of the job, he said, Well, what are you doing since you retired?
12:35
SPEAKER_03: And I said, Well, not a I don't have any plans.
12:37
SPEAKER_03: He said, Well, you can come help me if you want to.
12:39
SPEAKER_03: So that kind of led into my second job, helped him for two and a half years and learned a lot about plumbing during the time, and a heck of a good guy to work with uh on top of that.
12:49
SPEAKER_03: And then uh he decided to quit and retire and uh fell into a carpentry job and helped a carpenter for a year and a half uh after that.
12:57
SPEAKER_03: And again, a real good guy to work with, uh salt of earth fella, and learned a lot there with him.
13:04
SPEAKER_03: And about the same time he decided he was going to slow down, that's about the time my buddy Jimmy called me and uh made me aware of a job coming up in uh here at the APD, and uh that's when I applied for the job and got it.
13:16
SPEAKER_05: All right, so your title is technology specialist.
13:18
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
13:19
SPEAKER_03: What does that mean?
13:19
SPEAKER_03: What do you do?
13:20
SPEAKER_03: I'm mainly responsible for the uh body cameras and the fleet vehicle cameras, the you know, the cameras in the each patrol vehicle.
13:29
SPEAKER_03: That's mainly where I spend most of my time.
13:31
SPEAKER_03: It's uh inventory, shifting inventory, issuing cameras.
13:35
SPEAKER_03: If an officer has a problem with a camera, I troubleshoot it, try to straighten it out, order cameras, that sort of thing.
13:42
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
13:42
SPEAKER_03: And and then assist uh Jimmy where he needs, you know, whether whether it be the flock cameras or you know, the RTIC, the real-time information center is gonna be an intelligence center rather, is gonna be uh huge undertaking for us getting that on going.
13:57
SPEAKER_05: I mean it kind of lends itself to your uh interest in vehicles at least a little bit.
14:01
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
14:01
SPEAKER_05: You know, you're kind of like tinkering with cars, and that kind of gives you a chance to work with your hands to it.
14:06
SPEAKER_05: But and it's good now that I know a plumber, uh, in case I uh because uh we have that in common.
14:11
SPEAKER_05: At least you you're not afraid of plumbing anymore, but it's always something that's intimidated me because it's one of those things where if you don't do it just right and there's just this little itty bitty leak, that can be the biggest deal over time.
14:26
SPEAKER_03: You know, if so often uh Rex and I, that's the the plumber that I went uh work for, we'd go clean it up after somebody.
14:33
SPEAKER_03: They wanted to had a DIY.
14:34
SPEAKER_03: You know, they were going to do it themselves.
14:36
SPEAKER_03: And they created such a mess, exactly what you're talking about, they would create such a huge problem over some small little issue that if they had to call a plumber to begin with.
14:46
SPEAKER_03: You know, but you're right, it it can be uh dangerous for a homeowner.
14:50
SPEAKER_03: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
14:50
SPEAKER_05: And I never I've never had an issue like a particular one, because I try and keep the things I do with plumbing to a minimum.
14:56
SPEAKER_05: Right.
14:56
SPEAKER_05: But they just scare the daylights out of me.
14:58
SPEAKER_05: I just I don't want to do anything with the world of even just a stupid faucet.
15:02
SPEAKER_05: It's just like I know it's simple, I know it's just two things and they disconnect, but it's just Well, but uh a man's got to know his limitations.
15:11
SPEAKER_03: And uh you that that it that is very smart of you to be that astute to know that uh if I start messing with this, it could turn into something huge.
15:20
SPEAKER_05: Trevor Burrus There's been a few things I've done, like, you know, a little like you say, a little bathroom faucet or whatever.
15:24
SPEAKER_05: But as far as the world of actually anything bigger than that, bigger picture, larger reno, nope.
15:30
SPEAKER_05: Yep.
15:30
SPEAKER_05: As Andy used to say, call the man.
15:33
SPEAKER_05: There you go.
15:34
SPEAKER_05: In that instance, I'm just gonna I know what it's gonna cost me, but you pay for expertise.
15:40
SPEAKER_05: There you go.
15:41
SPEAKER_05: I am willing to do that.
15:42
SPEAKER_05: Smart.
15:42
SPEAKER_05: All right.
15:43
SPEAKER_05: So Bert Eastwood, thank you so much for joining us today.
15:46
SPEAKER_05: Now you're gonna keep me apprised of your uh your world tour coming up, right?
15:49
SPEAKER_05: So I can see Aces and Eights round training.
15:52
SPEAKER_03: We we start our stadium tour in the spring of next year, and I'll let you know the date so you can get uh tickets.
15:58
SPEAKER_03: I might even I might even copy a ticket.
16:00
SPEAKER_03: Save me a tour t-shirt.
16:01
SPEAKER_05: All right, we'll do.
16:02
SPEAKER_05: Bert, thanks for joining us.
16:04
SPEAKER_05: Thank you for having me.
16:06
SPEAKER_05: Detective Jacob Keelsen joins me now.
16:08
SPEAKER_05: Can I call you Detective yet?
16:11
SPEAKER_01: Everybody else seems to be, so I think you can.
16:13
SPEAKER_05: So Am I pronouncing your last name right?
16:16
SPEAKER_05: Because we haven't met before.
16:17
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
16:17
SPEAKER_05: Kielsen?
16:18
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
16:18
SPEAKER_05: Fantastic.
16:19
SPEAKER_05: So let's just get this out of the way.
16:20
SPEAKER_05: Where were you born, Detective?
16:22
SPEAKER_05: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
16:22
SPEAKER_01: Here in Western North Carolina, specifically.
16:23
SPEAKER_01: Uh I was born here in Asheville at St.
16:26
SPEAKER_01: Joe's before it became Mission.
16:28
SPEAKER_05: Is that right?
16:28
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
16:29
SPEAKER_05: So you got something in common with my wife.
16:31
SPEAKER_05: She's uh more than happy to tell people that she works in the hospital where she was born, because she works at Mission.
16:37
SPEAKER_05: And I don't know if it was St.
16:38
SPEAKER_05: Joe's or Mission when she was born.
16:40
SPEAKER_05: She's fifty.
16:41
SPEAKER_05: You look to be less than that.
16:43
SPEAKER_05: So she might have been St.
16:44
SPEAKER_05: Joe's as well.
16:45
SPEAKER_05: You probably didn't bump into each other back in the day.
16:47
SPEAKER_05: So did you go to Asheville High then?
16:49
SPEAKER_01: No.
16:49
SPEAKER_01: I I grew up in Haywood County.
16:51
SPEAKER_05: Oh, so grew up so born in Asheville?
16:52
SPEAKER_05: Yep.
16:53
SPEAKER_05: Grew up in Haywood County.
16:54
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
16:54
SPEAKER_05: So were you a Pisgah Bear or were you a Tuscola?
16:58
SPEAKER_01: Definitely Pisgah Bear.
16:59
SPEAKER_05: Okay, Pisgah Bear.
17:00
SPEAKER_05: Did you play football?
17:01
SPEAKER_05: I did.
17:02
SPEAKER_05: Awesome.
17:02
SPEAKER_05: So what year would that have been?
17:03
SPEAKER_01: Graduated in 2016.
17:06
SPEAKER_05: Oh God, you're so young.
17:07
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
17:07
SPEAKER_05: And I'm so old.
17:09
SPEAKER_05: So what made you want to be a Nashville police department officer?
17:12
SPEAKER_01: Well, I guess you could say it was kind of in my blood.
17:14
SPEAKER_01: I grew up in a law enforcement household.
17:16
SPEAKER_01: My dad, he worked for the Sheriff's Department here and retired here.
17:18
SPEAKER_01: So it was kind of something I grew up immersed in, and young as I can remember, I never really wanted to do anything else besides that, be a police officer.
17:25
SPEAKER_05: Aaron Ross Powell And what year did you join?
17:26
SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell So I was hired in June of 2018 to attend BLET here in Asheville, and then I was sworn in January 2019, and I will hit seven years sworn this upcoming January.
17:37
SPEAKER_05: Aaron Ross Powell And now a detective.
17:40
SPEAKER_05: Is that something you wanted to be all along so recently promoted from senior police officer to detective?
17:45
SPEAKER_05: And I'm familiar with the process, but make others familiar with the process.
17:48
SPEAKER_01: So my dad, he actually retired as a detective.
17:51
SPEAKER_01: He started out in the jail, then he went to the courts, then he worked uh on the road for a while, then he became an SRO, and then he finished out the last couple years of his career as a detective.
18:00
SPEAKER_01: So I kind of got to see that.
18:01
SPEAKER_01: You know, he was always there for our events and things like that.
18:04
SPEAKER_01: I always got to see him at night.
18:05
SPEAKER_01: And then once I got into this, I kind of got more experience in like law enforcement, the general things of like, you know, you got traffic enforcement, you got drug enforcement, you have like, you know, the downtown area where you have more nuisance type crimes and things of that nature.
18:19
SPEAKER_01: And just working night shift, you get a a lot of experience working, which I've worked night shift my whole career essentially at this point, except for a few months when I was like brand new in field training.
18:28
SPEAKER_01: So I've been on nights my whole career, and I've been very lucky to work with some of the people I have and you who've helped me along the way and just getting experience, you know, working nights.
18:36
SPEAKER_01: And then we have what's called the detective internship here, which we've started because we kind of were short on detectives at the time.
18:42
SPEAKER_01: And uh, I guess someone decided, like, you know, maybe we should have this just so we can get people who are interested in maybe being a detective or who are or who aren't interested, but they can kind of get their feet wet, see what it's about.
18:52
SPEAKER_01: And I've been doing that, well, was doing that for over three years since it started.
18:56
SPEAKER_01: And I got all that experience kind of working cases, getting to work with detectives and things like that.
19:00
SPEAKER_01: And I decided pretty early on, I was like, this is kind of cool.
19:03
SPEAKER_01: I'd like to do this, you know, you get to wear, you know, comfortable clothing, get to come in, work, you know, decent hours.
19:07
SPEAKER_01: You also get to, you know, if someone, you know, as a patrol officer, when you know you respond to a call like someone's house got broken into, their car got broken into, maybe their kids' bikes got stolen, a business got broken into, you know, you're there, you respond, you take the report, you gather whatever evidence you can.
19:22
SPEAKER_01: If you can make an arrest, you do it.
19:24
SPEAKER_01: But then more times than not, you know, you're just gathering evidence and you know, information that gets passed on to a detective.
19:30
SPEAKER_01: And then the detective essentially at that point, you know, it's on them to kind of go ahead and move forward with that case and try to bring it to its conclusion, hopefully, you know, with being able to like get charges or even have maybe have a person of interest.
19:40
SPEAKER_01: So maybe people are aware, like, hey, this is the person, we just don't have enough at this point.
19:44
SPEAKER_01: Then people are kind of aware.
19:45
SPEAKER_01: So as a patrol officer, you're like, this person's a suspect in like 10, 15, you know, house VEs, and then you just kind of if you see them in a neighborhood where like what this person usually hangs out downtown, what are they doing in North Asheville?
19:56
SPEAKER_01: So all those things kind of help me, you know, determine and as well as my dad being a detective, you know, like that's something I want to do.
20:02
SPEAKER_01: And I'm kind of at that stage now, you know, with my personal life, you know, my family where it's like doing like, you know, drug enforcement or maybe like doing like the downtown unit if like that comes back, which I've worked downtown for four years, kind of at that point in my career where I like to just maybe do do that and kind of take a break for a second from maybe doing street level stuff and just try to sit down and you know do more investigative type work.
20:24
SPEAKER_05: What was it like when they told you you were gonna be a detective?
20:27
SPEAKER_01: I was actually downstairs doing the internship uh in CID.
20:30
SPEAKER_01: I was uh working on some cases and I like my phone vibrated, my work phone vibrated.
20:34
SPEAKER_01: I looked down at it and said CID offer on it, and I opened it up and I was like, oh.
20:38
SPEAKER_01: And then, you know, Captain uh Silverman's like, hey, y'all need to respond to this email.
20:43
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, that was kind of it.
20:44
SPEAKER_01: And then uh I think the next day uh they sent out the email with like the official like promotional uh uh announcement where people were being reassigned.
20:52
SPEAKER_01: I was like, well, I guess this this is official.
20:54
SPEAKER_01: I've finally made it.
20:55
SPEAKER_01: You know, so it's you know, it's it's uh it's really nice for me.
20:58
SPEAKER_01: And you know, I told my parents about it, I told my dad I was very excited to tell them about that just because that was something, you know, it took him almost 15 years of his career to get to that point.
21:07
SPEAKER_01: Um but luckily, you know, we're we're a very young department and there's a lot of opportunities here for people to do different things, a lot of training opportunities, and you know, I'm kind of still very young in my career where like I'm very thankful that I get that opportunity to, you know, do what he what took him almost his whole career to achieve.
21:22
SPEAKER_01: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
21:23
SPEAKER_05: Recently promoted to Detective Jacob Keelson joins me now.
21:26
SPEAKER_05: So have you gotten your cubicle assignment?
21:28
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
21:29
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I have.
21:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
21:30
SPEAKER_01: That's that was that was the thing.
21:31
SPEAKER_01: I was uh earlier I was telling somebody like I've never had my desk since I've like, you know, since from my first job I ever had to this.
21:37
SPEAKER_01: Like I've never had my own personal like workspace, never had a fax number or a or a phone, like an actual like you know, phone with a landline.
21:44
SPEAKER_01: I've never had that.
21:45
SPEAKER_01: So like that's something getting adjusted to, but it's very nice.
21:47
SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell Yeah.
21:48
SPEAKER_05: I mean officers basically their office is their car.
21:52
SPEAKER_05: That's kind of you work out of that.
21:54
SPEAKER_05: That's your office.
21:55
SPEAKER_01: Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Yeah, for like the last seven years, you know, like that's been my office, you know, and that's like everything I need is like Like in that car, and if you know I need to print something out or get some like get some kind of supplies, I can go to the district office.
22:05
SPEAKER_01: But for yeah, for the most part, like we're self-sufficient on patrol because you know we're in the car, you go into calls, and then you know, you go to the jail, you go to the office, you go to properties.
22:14
SPEAKER_01: So it's like there's not a whole lot of time to kind of sit down like in an office setting and do stuff.
22:18
SPEAKER_01: So you are correct on that.
22:20
SPEAKER_05: Aaron Powell Speaking of your vehicles, you get to swap out, right?
22:22
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
22:22
SPEAKER_05: So do you get to pick a color?
22:24
SPEAKER_05: I always wondered about that.
22:25
SPEAKER_05: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
22:25
SPEAKER_01: I don't believe so.
22:26
SPEAKER_01: I think here it is.
22:27
SPEAKER_01: I think it's just like it's like, okay, we have this many people who need this many cars.
22:32
SPEAKER_05: You get the red one.
22:33
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
22:33
SPEAKER_01: It's like what do we have?
22:37
SPEAKER_05: I hate that color.
22:38
SPEAKER_05: Oh, come on, man.
22:39
SPEAKER_05: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
22:39
SPEAKER_01: Hey, I'm I'm like this way.
22:41
SPEAKER_01: Like if it runs and I don't have to pay for the gas, it gets me from point A to point B.
22:45
SPEAKER_01: I'll dri I'll drive whatever they give me.
22:46
SPEAKER_05: Trevor Burrus, Well, if it doesn't run, you drop it off at Fleet and get one that does, right?
22:49
SPEAKER_05: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
22:49
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
22:50
SPEAKER_01: That too.
22:51
SPEAKER_05: Aaron Ross Powell Okay.
22:51
SPEAKER_05: So we found out part one, you were born in Asheville.
22:54
SPEAKER_05: So the second question we always ask people that are on the podcast for the very first time is something about you that most people don't know.
23:00
SPEAKER_01: Aaron Ross Powell So I am an avid golfer.
23:02
SPEAKER_01: Um I I love to golf.
23:04
SPEAKER_01: Haven't been able to do it as much recently, even though I'm I don't think I'm that particularly good at it.
23:08
SPEAKER_01: It's just something that I get to go out and do, and it helps me kind of just decompress.
23:12
SPEAKER_01: You know, I I can kind of go home, you know, see the family, then go out, play a couple rounds, or go hit a bucket of balls, you know, work on my game, and it's it's a game of mechanics and things like that.
23:21
SPEAKER_01: I would say it's kind of like shooting in a way.
23:23
SPEAKER_01: Like it's one of those skills.
23:25
SPEAKER_01: If you don't use it, you lose it.
23:26
SPEAKER_01: So I try to practice as much as I can, try to play as much as I can.
23:30
SPEAKER_01: Um and it's just something I'm I've I like to do.
23:32
SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of that has to do with uh my grandfather, because he played golf and he kind I played a lot with him growing up, played a lot with my father.
23:38
SPEAKER_01: So it's just one of those things that it's more of a nostalgic thing for me.
23:41
SPEAKER_01: It brings me back to, you know, I would say earlier times when I was younger, you know.
23:45
SPEAKER_01: So Yeah.
23:45
SPEAKER_05: Well, I I love to golf too.
23:47
SPEAKER_05: And the thing about it is you can't really ever get great at it.
23:51
SPEAKER_05: You can just hope to get as consistent as possible so you can enjoy it.
23:56
SPEAKER_05: That's that's kind of the thing.
23:57
SPEAKER_05: You minimize the shanks, right?
23:58
SPEAKER_05: Because the pros are playing every day with hundreds of balls on the range and all those things, and they still make mistakes.
24:07
SPEAKER_05: Not as many as we do, but they still make mistakes.
24:10
SPEAKER_05: So what's your uh favorite courses to play in the area?
24:12
SPEAKER_05: Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.
24:12
SPEAKER_01: So I actually grew up playing a lot.
24:14
SPEAKER_01: Uh used to it's no longer around.
24:16
SPEAKER_01: It's I think it's a housing development now, but Iron Tree out in Waynesville, North Carolina.
24:20
SPEAKER_01: It used to be it was an 18-hole golf course.
24:22
SPEAKER_01: Some of it got sold off, and it was just nine-holes.
24:25
SPEAKER_01: So essentially you would play 18 rounds, but you played the same nine twice.
24:28
SPEAKER_01: I played that a lot growing up.
24:30
SPEAKER_01: And then as I got older and I got a little better, not that great.
24:33
SPEAKER_01: You know, I played a lot at Broadmoor, uh, Lake Duneluska.
24:36
SPEAKER_01: I've been lucky to maybe play at some of the more f nicer courses in the area.
24:39
SPEAKER_01: I've played at Maggie a couple times.
24:41
SPEAKER_01: I've played at Springdale.
24:42
SPEAKER_05: Maggie's all Springdale's room.
24:43
SPEAKER_01: I played I've uh I've played at some of the uh the par threes down in Myrtle Beach.
24:47
SPEAKER_01: So like played a little bit, but I haven't played like super fancy courses, and I would not wish to just because I'm not yet on that level and I would not want to be uh in front of somebody teeing off and like shanking a ball or something like that, and like just just the pure embarrassment of that.
25:02
SPEAKER_05: Let me take that off your plate as far as embarrassment.
25:04
SPEAKER_05: As somebody that has had the good fortune to play some of these more exclusive courses like the Kiawa courses, like the Ocean course, or Sequoia National at Cherokee or Cliffs at Walnut Cove or some others, don't deprive yourself of the opportunity.
25:17
SPEAKER_05: The people that play at those courses aren't there because they're great golfers.
25:21
SPEAKER_05: It's there because they either know somebody or they got a lot of money in their back pocket.
25:24
SPEAKER_05: They're just as likely to shank as you are.
25:26
SPEAKER_05: Speaking of nice courses, growing up in Haywood County, how about Springdale?
25:29
SPEAKER_05: Boy, since they did the renovations, they uh they jacked those rates through the roof.
25:33
SPEAKER_01: When I was in college, me and my buddy, you know, he was actually in the criminal justice program at A B Tech with me whenever I used I first applied here.
25:40
SPEAKER_01: He decided to go do something else.
25:41
SPEAKER_01: But every day after school, like time to leave and go play, and we'd go to Springdale and like we'd pay$30,$40 for a round.
25:47
SPEAKER_01: And like now it's like I think it like you said, since they've renovated, it's been renovated multiple times since then, uh multiple owners.
25:53
SPEAKER_01: But it's like I've been up there a couple times since then, so it's way nicer than I was then.
25:57
SPEAKER_01: But I think my my level of play has dipped since that point in time since I was in college.
26:01
SPEAKER_01: So again, I'd probably need to practice some.
26:03
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, Springdale is very nice.
26:05
SPEAKER_01: I've also played at Ashville Muni a couple times as well.
26:08
SPEAKER_01: Not not recently, but I've played there as well.
26:09
SPEAKER_05: Well, I mean the front nines not doesn't exist right now because of Helene.
26:13
SPEAKER_05: It's a it's a frisbee golf course, but they're gonna bring that back hopefully.
26:16
SPEAKER_05: Have you played Sequoia in Cherokee?
26:18
SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell I have not.
26:19
SPEAKER_01: I I have not.
26:20
SPEAKER_01: My uh I think my dad had the opportunity to play there maybe once, but I have not played there.
26:24
SPEAKER_01: I've played uh like I said, I've played Gene Lusca the most, I feel like.
26:28
SPEAKER_01: And I'm actually better playing there, and I think just because I have the down the distances and just like the feel of where the hole is, better there.
26:35
SPEAKER_05: Aaron Ross Powell I'm joined now by a recently promoted to detective Jacob Keelson.
26:39
SPEAKER_05: So I know how it works in some other departments, and I would imagine it's the same with beginning a role as a new detective.
26:46
SPEAKER_05: There's got to be some sort of, I guess, you know, orientation, some sort of training.
26:49
SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell So most people may not know this, but whenever like at least here at this department, I don't know how other departments are.
26:55
SPEAKER_01: If you get promoted to, say, sergeant, there's a field training uh system there so you to make sure like people are prepared and they know like what paperwork needs to be done, what policies need to be adhered to.
27:05
SPEAKER_01: Being a detective, it's kind of the same thing.
27:07
SPEAKER_01: There's a field training process there as well.
27:09
SPEAKER_01: Uh it's shortened, obviously, but it's just there so detectives they don't just say, all right, there's your desk, there's your phone, go out and you know investigate cases.
27:17
SPEAKER_01: It's like you get partnered with senior detectives who kind of walk you through like so if like a call comes out that maybe they're like, you can benefit from going to that and learning just from our side of from our side of the house how we're gonna handle this.
27:29
SPEAKER_01: That's how they kind of train detectives, especially new detectives, even detectives who've been, you know, part of the internship, which there's several in CID right now who have been a part of the internship.
27:38
SPEAKER_01: That's just generic for everybody, and I kind of agree with that, just so it's kind of like you got a baseline of, hey, this is where you know these calls are what you're gonna go to.
27:46
SPEAKER_01: And then once you're a detective, you kind of have some experience to pull from.
27:50
SPEAKER_01: You know, as an intern or a patrol officer is like, okay, I was a detective, I remember this is how detective so-and-so told me I need to do this to make sure we're doing what we need to be doing so we can prosecute these cases and we're not getting in trouble or we're not missing anything.
28:01
SPEAKER_05: Aaron Powell What are you looking forward to the most?
28:04
SPEAKER_05: Is there a part of the job or is it just the hours or what is the one thing you're most looking forward to?
28:10
SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell I would say several of the people up there I've worked with on patrol, specifically uh one who was my beat partner uh for over three years downtown.
28:18
SPEAKER_01: She's she's been up there since July.
28:21
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, we kind of get to reconnect and work together up there.
28:23
SPEAKER_01: Another detective who's being promoted with me, you know, we worked on the same team, uh all three of us worked together for almost three years together working downtown in South Asheville back when it was just one district.
28:34
SPEAKER_01: So that would be nice just having that familiarity with people.
28:36
SPEAKER_01: And also doing the internship has kind of allowed me to work with some of the detectives who are already up there and kind of so like I know who they are, they know who I am, and it's it's it's a little easier to go ask questions or to be like, hey, like I got like I don't know how to do this.
28:49
SPEAKER_01: Like, how should I do this?
28:50
SPEAKER_01: Or like, hey, I need to contact loss prevention for Lowe's.
28:53
SPEAKER_01: Who's the best point of contact for that?
28:55
SPEAKER_01: Because I have someone who's stealing tools from here and then they're selling them to pawn shops.
28:59
SPEAKER_01: So that's kind of what I'm looking forward to, is just kind of the relationships because it's a little easier as opposed to coming in as like I was just a patrol guy and I put in for detective, and now I'm like, I don't really know, you know, I don't know who these people are.
29:09
SPEAKER_01: Now I gotta it's like now I've kind of feel like with the experience from the internship, I've got some experience with, you know, investigating cases, but also have that relationship with the people up there as well.
29:18
SPEAKER_05: And you get to work real clothes now too.
29:20
SPEAKER_01: That that's true, yes.
29:21
SPEAKER_01: I get to which, you know, I've you know, I would have been fine, you know, to work, you know, to continue working patrol and things like that.
29:26
SPEAKER_01: But that is something, you know, that I I can look forward to, you know, get up, you know, at seven, eight in the morning, you know, be home in the evening, you know, be with my family.
29:34
SPEAKER_01: So that's something I I get to look forward to as well.
29:37
SPEAKER_01: But you know, it's it's still a little surreal, you know, just coming from working patrol, you know, the most of my career and working nights specifically, because day shift patrol and night shift patrol like are just a little different from the perspective of you know, nights you come in and you get a little more free free time to kind of go out and like, you know, if you want to go find stuff, you want to go stop cars, you want to go find people breaking into businesses, people stealing, you can do that.
29:57
SPEAKER_01: Um so that's that's gonna be a bit of an adjustment as well, just like being up during the day, readjusting from working nights and kind of being like, you know, I gotta investigate this case.
30:06
SPEAKER_01: All right, this person has a warrant, but like maybe I shouldn't go out and find them now because it's one of those like I'm more of a investigator now.
30:12
SPEAKER_01: But I could still go out and do, you know, patrol-esque things.
30:15
SPEAKER_01: But like I just kind of reorienting myself to like the new way of like doing things as a detective.
30:20
SPEAKER_01: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
30:20
SPEAKER_05: Newly promoted detective Jacob Gilson, congratulations, first of all.
30:24
SPEAKER_05: And thank you for joining me.
30:25
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
30:25
SPEAKER_01: I'm glad to be here.
30:28
SPEAKER_05: Joining me now, senior police officer Debbie LaCroix of the Community Engagement Division, otherwise known as Cora's Human.
30:35
SPEAKER_05: Where is Cora today?
30:36
SPEAKER_02: I don't see her uh She is having a spa day today.
30:41
SPEAKER_02: She's having her a haircut.
30:42
SPEAKER_05: How how often does uh Cora get pampered that way?
30:45
SPEAKER_02: Probably about every six to seven weeks.
30:49
SPEAKER_05: I mean, image is everything.
30:50
SPEAKER_05: And you know, she's she's out and about all the time.
30:52
SPEAKER_05: People are looking at her, and she she gets one hair out of place.
30:55
SPEAKER_05: Somebody's gonna say something.
30:56
SPEAKER_02: That's it.
30:57
SPEAKER_02: And you know, we we do like to keep her clean for the community and all the events and things that she attends.
31:04
SPEAKER_02: It's right.
31:05
SPEAKER_02: We have to keep her clean.
31:07
SPEAKER_05: Does she ever like roll in the mud and you're like, Cora, no.
31:11
SPEAKER_02: Well, she does like to roll in the mud and be a normal pop outside of her job here.
31:17
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
31:17
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
31:18
SPEAKER_04: So i but you're like, you gotta keep clean.
31:20
SPEAKER_04: We got this thing coming up this weekend.
31:22
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
31:22
SPEAKER_02: She is white.
31:23
SPEAKER_02: And when I first went to select a dog, I picked a brown one out.
31:30
SPEAKER_02: And the trainer took three of them home or back to train.
31:34
SPEAKER_02: And so it just worked out that cora was gonna be best suited for our agency, and she's white.
31:41
SPEAKER_02: So it is a challenge to keep her clean, but I do it.
31:44
SPEAKER_05: Aaron Powell Hope has an easier time because uh detective Hope, our other therapy dog, is brown.
31:50
SPEAKER_05: And so she has a little more wiggle room with probably getting dirty, I would imagine, as opposed to Exactly.
31:55
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
31:57
SPEAKER_05: All right.
31:57
SPEAKER_05: So I know uh you guys have been busy.
32:00
SPEAKER_05: We had a nice event out there at Tanger Outlets with the uh Boobash, which is fine.
32:05
SPEAKER_05: A lot of people come for that?
32:06
SPEAKER_02: A lot of people came.
32:07
SPEAKER_02: We handed out a lot of candy.
32:09
SPEAKER_02: We'd like to give out a shout out to Target at River Hills uh for uh supplying us with a significant amount of candy to hand out to these kids.
32:20
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, that's great.
32:21
SPEAKER_05: That's awesome.
32:22
SPEAKER_05: So also uh we got the Citizens Police Academy going on right now.
32:25
SPEAKER_05: We've talked about this a few different times.
32:27
SPEAKER_05: How is this class?
32:28
SPEAKER_05: Is it a good class?
32:29
SPEAKER_05: I know it's completely full.
32:30
SPEAKER_02: It's a wonderful class, a lot of very uh very good questions coming out of the group.
32:36
SPEAKER_02: The people that are have signed up.
32:38
SPEAKER_02: We've got a lot of people from the community, different disciplines, and we're so very glad to have each and every one of them.
32:47
SPEAKER_02: So it's it's great.
32:48
SPEAKER_05: Aaron Powell I know one of the things that you do is organize the food for Citizens Police Academy.
32:54
SPEAKER_05: So it's every Thursday night for 10 weeks, and so it's 10 different meals, and of course you're gonna have you're gonna have barbecue one night.
33:01
SPEAKER_05: That's easy, right?
33:02
SPEAKER_05: You're gonna have uh, I believe, pizza usually one night.
33:05
SPEAKER_05: That's easy because you've got to get something that's gonna stay warm and something almost everybody likes, but I know you've tried to think outside the box.
33:11
SPEAKER_07: Yes.
33:12
SPEAKER_05: And get some different types of foods.
33:14
SPEAKER_05: And I know uh last week I heard there was some extra food.
33:17
SPEAKER_05: It's down in the fridge.
33:18
SPEAKER_05: Go help yourself, and I'm like, what's this?
33:20
SPEAKER_05: Smells good, tastes good.
33:22
SPEAKER_05: We had to do some research.
33:23
SPEAKER_05: It was called, and I might be mispronouncing, but I think it's either mikasa or makasa or what it's like a caterer.
33:30
SPEAKER_02: It's Peruvian food.
33:32
SPEAKER_02: It was amazing.
33:33
SPEAKER_02: We got a lot of great feedback.
33:35
SPEAKER_02: I always try to throw something a little different on the menu.
33:39
SPEAKER_02: I like to try to go local, um, you know, support our downtown and local restaurants that have great food.
33:48
SPEAKER_02: Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.
33:48
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
33:49
SPEAKER_05: If I hadn't eaten it, I would have had no idea what Peruvian food is supposed to taste like.
33:54
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
33:54
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
33:55
SPEAKER_02: The uh roasted cauliflower was delicious.
33:59
SPEAKER_02: I think that was Mark Starling's favorite.
34:02
SPEAKER_05: Oh, he liked that, okay.
34:04
SPEAKER_02: He did.
34:04
SPEAKER_02: He absolutely loved it.
34:06
SPEAKER_05: Aaron Powell I had the chicken.
34:07
SPEAKER_05: It was like a chicken.
34:08
SPEAKER_05: It I I don't want to use the word gravy, but it was kind of like a sauce, a chicken in sauce with like rice, which had all these little garlic pearls in it, which I loved.
34:16
SPEAKER_02: Aaron Ross Powell Yeah.
34:17
SPEAKER_02: I am sorry I can't pronounce what that dish is called.
34:21
SPEAKER_02: It's all right.
34:21
SPEAKER_02: I need some help.
34:23
SPEAKER_02: Uh but the owners came up, delivered it, set it up, and they were wonderful to work with.
34:29
SPEAKER_02: They do have a food truck, and I don't think they have a brick and mortar, but they do large catering events like weddings and things like that.
34:37
SPEAKER_02: So it was delicious.
34:39
SPEAKER_05: Maybe you'll see them around.
34:40
SPEAKER_05: So if you guys are out and about on some weekend, you see a truck, you don't recognize it.
34:43
SPEAKER_05: And I think it's M-I-K-A-S-A-Makasa.
34:47
SPEAKER_05: I think that's it.
34:48
SPEAKER_05: So if if you see that, by all means it's Peruvian, it's delicious.
34:52
SPEAKER_05: Think outside the box and enjoy yourself a meal.
34:55
SPEAKER_05: Speaking of food, we've got Thanksgiving coming up, which is pretty much a holiday that we give thanks for our bounty.
35:00
SPEAKER_05: And I know there was something coming up, but you're working on it right now.
35:03
SPEAKER_05: It's not 100% all nailed down with the details, but working with, I believe it's Eblin Foundation.
35:07
SPEAKER_05: Yes, Eblin Charities.
35:09
SPEAKER_02: We usually go out and help hand out turkeys and uh a Thanksgiving meal to families that may not otherwise have something to eat on the table.
35:19
SPEAKER_02: That's usually the day before Thanksgiving.
35:22
SPEAKER_02: Eblin Charities partners with Ingalls to provide turkeys and a Thanksgiving meal.
35:28
SPEAKER_02: And so we are out there, Cora's out there with her uh holiday attire, and we hand out turkeys for those that are in need.
35:37
SPEAKER_02: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
35:37
SPEAKER_05: And food security uh insecurity is a big topic right now because of the government shutdown.
35:42
SPEAKER_05: And uh hopefully it's over by the time Thanksgiving gets here.
35:44
SPEAKER_05: But a lot of people are talking about it right now.
35:47
SPEAKER_05: So more important than ever with some of those SNAP benefits, I guess they're kind of in doubt in the next couple of weeks.
35:53
SPEAKER_05: So that giveaway with Evelyn and Ingalls for Thanksgiving is a great thing that you guys are doing.
35:57
SPEAKER_05: And I know it makes you feel good doing it.
35:59
SPEAKER_02: Aaron Ross Powell Exactly.
36:00
SPEAKER_02: We are uh in the process of organizing our heroes and helpers for kids uh during the holidays.
36:08
SPEAKER_02: That's for Christmas, and we identify kids in need in the community uh that might need a little assistance for Christmas.
36:17
SPEAKER_02: So that's always exciting.
36:18
SPEAKER_05: Aaron Ross Powell Speaking of Christmas and Thanksgiving, this is a question I'm asking a lot of people.
36:22
SPEAKER_05: We're sitting down in the chair where you are.
36:24
SPEAKER_05: So we're entering the holiday season, right?
36:26
SPEAKER_05: We just got through uh Halloween and now we're moving toward Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's.
36:33
SPEAKER_05: I expected this to be a no-brainer answer for everybody that they would say the same thing.
36:37
SPEAKER_05: But what is your favorite holiday coming up?
36:40
SPEAKER_02: I do like Christmas.
36:41
SPEAKER_02: Uh with my family, I have five children, and I have five grandchildren.
36:48
SPEAKER_02: So I love Christmas because it's big.
36:51
SPEAKER_02: Everybody gets is here, my house during the holidays, and we just have a lot of fun.
36:58
SPEAKER_02: It's one time of year that I splurge on my kids and my grandkids, and we remember the time of year that it is, but uh it's just a joyful time where we can celebrate being together.
37:13
SPEAKER_05: Do any special holiday tradition, something that's you unique to your family, a a meal, an activity, anything you guys do that's just kind of a tradition?
37:21
SPEAKER_05: Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.
37:22
SPEAKER_02: We get together, all of my kids come and we exchange gifts and have a wonderful meal on Christmas Eve.
37:29
SPEAKER_06: Okay.
37:30
SPEAKER_02: So that's that's kind of what we do.
37:33
SPEAKER_02: And it goes from four o'clock in the afternoon until after midnight.
37:38
SPEAKER_05: Oh wow, that's a full day.
37:40
SPEAKER_02: It is it's it's great.
37:42
SPEAKER_02: We we've already started looking for the girls, pajamas that match, and uh, you know, so my grandkids they think that's a lot of fun, and we always look forward to that each year.
37:55
SPEAKER_05: Aaron Ross Powell Do you open presents Christmas Eve or Christmas morning?
37:59
SPEAKER_02: Aaron Ross Powell Christmas Eve.
38:00
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
38:01
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
38:02
SPEAKER_05: I am a very staunch advocate of Christmas morning.
38:05
SPEAKER_05: Over the years, my wife has tried to encourage me to be more open-minded and say, can we do one on Christmas Eve at least?
38:11
SPEAKER_05: So I've expanded.
38:12
SPEAKER_05: I was very rigid before.
38:13
SPEAKER_05: I've expanded to one on Christmas Eve than the rest on Christmas morning.
38:18
SPEAKER_05: It's the whole thing of waking up to it.
38:19
SPEAKER_02: Aaron Ross Powell Right.
38:20
SPEAKER_02: Now the grandkids Santa Claus comes on Christmas Eve night.
38:25
SPEAKER_02: And so they do open gifts Christmas morning.
38:27
SPEAKER_05: Right.
38:28
SPEAKER_05: So Santa's gifts that get dropped off get open Christmas morning.
38:32
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
38:32
SPEAKER_05: Trevor Burrus, but then you guys also give some too.
38:34
SPEAKER_05: Those are the ones that get opened on Christmas Eve.
38:36
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
38:37
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
38:37
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
38:38
SPEAKER_05: Senior police officer Debbie LaCroix with the Community Engagement Division joins me now.
38:42
SPEAKER_05: I thought I saw you guys at the Faith and Blue event.
38:46
SPEAKER_02: We did just participate in the Faith and Blue weekend, which is it's based on the premise that strong communities are built through a mutual respect and understanding of law enforcement and faith.
39:00
SPEAKER_02: So we partnered with uh Hill Street Baptist Church, and we went in and we helped them painting.
39:06
SPEAKER_02: We pulled up moldings and replaced moldings that needed to be replaced.
39:12
SPEAKER_02: We did uh yard work and we cut down some trees and we raked leaves and just had a great day with the church and the people involved there.
39:22
SPEAKER_02: It was just uh we laughed and we drank coffee and had snacks, and uh the pastor they went and got us uh subs uh for lunch.
39:32
SPEAKER_02: And so it was just wonderful to partner with the community in that way and be helpful.
39:39
SPEAKER_05: Sounds like a great day.
39:40
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it was.
39:41
SPEAKER_02: It was.
39:42
SPEAKER_05: Senior police officer Debbie LaCroix, thank you again for joining us.
39:45
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
39:47
SPEAKER_05: Time once again for the History Minute with Hannah Silberman as we continue to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the APD.
39:55
SPEAKER_05: And Hannah, it's not like we have saved the best for last because we've got a few more things to talk about before the year is up, but this is one of the bigger history stories with the Asheville Police Department and the city of Asheville, really.
40:09
SPEAKER_05: Will Harris.
40:10
SPEAKER_05: That's a name a lot of people will recognize.
40:12
SPEAKER_05: Tell us all about Will Harris.
40:14
SPEAKER_05: Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.
40:14
SPEAKER_00: In November of 1906, Will Harris escaped a chain gang in Charlotte.
40:19
SPEAKER_00: He was kind of a well-known, desperate character, as they would put it.
40:22
SPEAKER_00: I think the story is he escaped in the back of a truck full of something.
40:26
SPEAKER_00: And he hopped onto a train and he made his way back to Asheville.
40:29
SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
40:29
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, you you think chain gang, all right?
40:31
SPEAKER_05: You literally think these guys are like chained up, they're carrying these big weights and whatever.
40:36
SPEAKER_05: So how does one escape from a chain gang?
40:38
SPEAKER_05: That's quite an accomplishment already.
40:40
SPEAKER_00: So he jumped on a train and uh he rode his way to Asheville, which he was familiar with, and he had a a really long rap sheet, you know, theft, robbery, assault, and he had escaped jail more than once.
40:50
SPEAKER_00: So he he knew how to do it.
40:52
SPEAKER_00: So he came to Asheville to try to find his ex-girlfriend who had moved to Hendersonville.
40:57
SPEAKER_00: So he goes into town, he got a he picked up a rifle, he bought some new clothes, and he also bought a bunch of liquor.
41:03
SPEAKER_00: Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.
41:03
SPEAKER_05: How did he have money on a chain gang?
41:05
SPEAKER_05: So maybe he robbed some people along the way, probably, I would guess.
41:09
SPEAKER_05: Okay, so he was not a native to western North Carolina.
41:12
SPEAKER_05: He was just kind of looking for his girlfriend.
41:14
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
41:14
SPEAKER_05: Gotcha.
41:15
SPEAKER_00: So he ends up at the house of his girlfriend's sister, and she lived at the corner of Valley and Eagle Street.
41:21
SPEAKER_00: And those two streets no longer intersect, but they they used to kind of down where South Charlotte Street would be today.
41:26
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
41:27
SPEAKER_00: He's hanging out, he's getting pretty drunk.
41:29
SPEAKER_00: Um her boyfriend comes home and he threatens him with the rifle.
41:32
SPEAKER_05: That was that was probably a bad idea.
41:34
SPEAKER_05: Will's got a temper.
41:35
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
41:36
SPEAKER_00: So he does what any normal and reasonable person would do, and he ran to the police station and reported him.
41:41
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
41:41
SPEAKER_00: So two police officers went to the door.
41:44
SPEAKER_00: It was Captain John Page and Officer Charles Blackstock.
41:48
SPEAKER_00: All right.
41:49
SPEAKER_00: So it's November, it's uh near midnight, it's snowing, and they start walking up to the store, and Will Harris knows that they're coming.
41:57
SPEAKER_00: He opens fire through the door, he hits Blackstock in the chest and kills him.
42:00
SPEAKER_00: Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.
42:01
SPEAKER_05: So this is like the second story we've had recently where someone shot through a door.
42:04
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
42:05
SPEAKER_05: We had the one in the Emma community as well.
42:07
SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
42:07
SPEAKER_00: So Officer Blackstock is killed immediately.
42:10
SPEAKER_00: Captain Page drew his weapon and starts returning fire, but he also gets shot in the arm.
42:14
SPEAKER_00: So he decides that he's running out of ammo.
42:17
SPEAKER_00: He's going to run back to the square to try to find backup.
42:20
SPEAKER_00: He runs off, and then Will Harris starts walking up Eagle Street towards downtown.
42:24
SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
42:24
SPEAKER_05: You had probably said, but what year did this take place?
42:26
SPEAKER_05: Aaron Powell 1906.
42:29
SPEAKER_00: And so as he's doing that, Eagle Street at the time was far more residential than you would think of it as today.
42:34
SPEAKER_00: And he just starts opening fire on many innocent people.
42:37
SPEAKER_00: He kills three of them.
42:38
SPEAKER_00: Just people who are on their standing on their porch, who are walking home.
42:42
SPEAKER_00: He just kind of goes on what we would call a rampage.
42:44
SPEAKER_00: Just fires active shooters.
42:47
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
42:47
SPEAKER_00: Officer Page running back to the square can hear this happening.
42:50
SPEAKER_00: He finds Officer John Bailey in the square and says, go find help.
42:54
SPEAKER_00: And he starts running towards the gunfire.
42:56
SPEAKER_00: Page, you know, he's been shot in the arm.
42:57
SPEAKER_00: And so he runs into Will Harris at the corner of Eagle Street and Biltmore Avenue.
43:02
SPEAKER_00: And they start a gunfight across the street.
43:04
SPEAKER_05: Aaron Ross Powell That's just down the street from where we are right now.
43:06
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
43:07
SPEAKER_00: But Captain Page runs out of ammo, so he returns to the square to try to find more men or more ammo or something.
43:13
SPEAKER_00: And John Bailey, who hadn't been successful in finding anybody, starts running towards the gunfire to take up the fight.
43:18
SPEAKER_00: It was heard apparently yelling at people, I deputize you to help me in this.
43:22
SPEAKER_00: But he goes down, he starts exchanging fire, he takes cover behind a telephone pole, but Will Harris's rifle was so powerful it actually shot through the pole and it struck Bailey in the head and the chest and kills him as well.
43:34
SPEAKER_05: Wow.
43:35
SPEAKER_00: So two that's two police officers and three innocent bystanders who are all killed, and I think it was like twelve minutes.
43:40
SPEAKER_04: Yikes.
43:41
SPEAKER_00: Will Harris runs away.
43:42
SPEAKER_00: He just disappears into the winter night, and they start bringing in tracking dogs from out of town, but it was snowing so heavily and it was so cold that it was very hard to track him down.
43:53
SPEAKER_05: I mean, the year being 1906, obviously it's a little bit easier back then to kind of disappear than it is.
44:00
SPEAKER_05: I mean there's no way to now with vehicles and radios and communication and all of those things.
44:06
SPEAKER_05: But back then, once you're out of eye shot, essentially, and you can start sneaking around or maybe he got on a horse or whatever he did, a little bit easier to slip away.
44:15
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
44:15
SPEAKER_00: So the following day there was a a large posse, nearly 300 people.
44:20
SPEAKER_00: They uh got all of the guns and ammo from the local um hardware stores and they gave them out and they started to track him down.
44:28
SPEAKER_00: And he was eventually cornered in a laurel thicket and Fletcher.
44:32
SPEAKER_00: Famously, that group was led by our ex-chief of police, Frank Jordan, and they exchanged fire and and Harris was shot and killed.
44:39
SPEAKER_05: Was anybody else injured or killed from our side?
44:42
SPEAKER_00: No, but um Frank Jordan recalled that day many years later, and he said he was wearing a Stetson hat and he had a little bullet hole that went right through the brim of the hat.
44:50
SPEAKER_00: So it was pretty close.
44:52
SPEAKER_05: So he had escaped to Fairview, or Fletcher, I'm sorry.
44:54
SPEAKER_05: He had escaped to Fletcher just a little bit south of Asheville, but not in a residence, just like kind of in the woods kind of.
45:00
SPEAKER_00: Well, um somebody saw him sleeping in the their barn and they they called a man to the the group and they they tracked him down nearby.
45:07
SPEAKER_05: In November of 1906.
45:09
SPEAKER_00: That is the story uh of Will Harris, and it it is one of the most shocking and destructive and terrible stories that we've had, especially in terms of line of duty deaths.
45:18
SPEAKER_00: So Charles Blackstock was first joined our department in 1904.
45:22
SPEAKER_00: So he'd only been an officer for you for a few years, and he had four children, all under the age of ten when he was killed.
45:28
SPEAKER_00: Um and James Bailey had only been a police officer for about a year, and he had a two-year-old son at the time that he was killed.
45:36
SPEAKER_05: So we've had seven line of duty deaths, and those were two of them.
45:39
SPEAKER_05: Wow.
45:40
SPEAKER_00: In the same night.
45:42
SPEAKER_05: So in a town where a lot of people talk about, like, you know, ghosts and things like that, we'll have our ghost tours.
45:47
SPEAKER_05: Have you ever heard of anything associated with that?
45:52
SPEAKER_00: Just in my time in Asheville, when I've heard the walking tours talk about it as they walk behind the station, but I don't know if there's an actual haunting story.
45:58
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
45:59
SPEAKER_05: So The Story of Will Harris, another history minute with Hannah Silberman.
46:05
SPEAKER_05: That does it for another episode.
46:07
SPEAKER_05: Thanks for listening to the APD Pod Squad.
46:10
SPEAKER_05: And thank you to my guests, Bert Eastwood, Detective Jacob Keelson, Senior Police Officer Debbie LaCroix, and Hannah Silberman with the History Minute.
46:19
SPEAKER_05: And thank you for listening.
46:20
SPEAKER_05: If there's something you'd like to hear discussed, or if you've got a guest suggestion, just call 828-250-8800 and leave a voicemail.
46:28
SPEAKER_05: That's 828-250-8800.
46:31
SPEAKER_05: Or you can email APD Podcast Feedback at AshevilleNC.gov.
46:37
SPEAKER_05: Click that subscribe button or favorites or whatever you gotta do so you don't miss a single episode.
46:42
SPEAKER_05: Tell everyone you know and help spread the word.
46:45
SPEAKER_05: I'm Rick Rice, and this is the APD Pod Squad.