Latest / APD Pod Squad / Season 2, Episode 22; Sgt Brad Beddow, Sgt Hunter Welborn, Officer Dalton Green, and the History Minute with Hannah Silberman

Transcript

Season 2, Episode 22; Sgt Brad Beddow, Sgt Hunter Welborn, Officer Dalton Green, and the History Minute with Hannah Silberman · APD Pod Squad

0:00
SPEAKER_05: This is the APD5 squad.
0:04
SPEAKER_05: I'm Rick Rice.
0:06
SPEAKER_05: In this episode, Sergeant Brad Beto recently reassigned for patrol to the Specialized Operations Division, where he'll serve as the HACA team supervisor.
0:14
SPEAKER_05: Hacker meeting the housing authority of the city of Asheville, for those who do not in the know.
0:18
SPEAKER_05: Also, Sergeant Hunter Wellbourne from the Traffic Safety Unit will talk about a fun day for the family coming up at Biltmore Church on July 25th with several local police and fire departments.
0:28
SPEAKER_05: And we'll also discuss a really bad week we had recently with three motor vehicle fatalities, two of those involving motorcycles, and the message from APD in the aftermath.
0:39
SPEAKER_05: Getting to know Officer Dalton Green will hear about his journey from Texas to new solo officer.
0:45
SPEAKER_05: And Kenneth Silberman returns for another history minute as we go back to July 1911 for the line of duty death of Officer Edward McConnell that involved stolen cows.
0:58
SPEAKER_05: It's all coming up on season two, episode 22 of the APD Pod Squad.
1:05
SPEAKER_05: Getting to know Sergeant Brad Beto, thank you for joining me.
1:08
SPEAKER_05: You're welcome.
1:08
SPEAKER_05: First, we need to invoke the name of Lieutenant Evan Flanders, who uh managed to avoid this.
1:14
SPEAKER_05: Oh, yeah.
1:14
SPEAKER_05: He pulled rank on this one.
1:16
SPEAKER_05: For sure.
1:17
SPEAKER_05: For sure.
1:18
SPEAKER_05: Well, maybe you need to get a promotion.
1:19
SPEAKER_05: You gotta get up to lieutenant or captain or something like that, and then you can avoid the next one.
1:23
SPEAKER_05: Trying to catch that guy is pretty impossible.
1:26
SPEAKER_05: You know, we've really never sat down to talk, so I'm looking forward to getting to know you as well as some of our listeners out there.
1:31
SPEAKER_05: And this seems like a good place to begin with this question we asked just about everybody.
1:36
SPEAKER_05: How about one thing that most people don't know about you?
1:40
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
1:40
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
1:40
SPEAKER_03: Uh it's pretty basic, but I was born in Columbia, South America.
1:44
SPEAKER_03: Aaron Ross Powell Okay.
1:45
SPEAKER_03: I was waiting for South Carolina.
1:47
SPEAKER_05: No, sir.
1:47
SPEAKER_05: And you dropped Columbia, South America.
1:50
SPEAKER_05: Correct.
1:50
SPEAKER_05: Wow.
1:51
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
1:51
SPEAKER_05: So when did you arrive here?
1:53
SPEAKER_03: Aaron Ross Powell Uh I was only a couple months old.
1:55
SPEAKER_03: I know most people would have guessed that from my name being Brad.
1:58
SPEAKER_03: That's definitely a Colombian name.
2:00
SPEAKER_03: Not a Hispanic name, so uh yeah, I was uh a few months old when I got adopted, and we lived in New York for a while and then up in Maine, and then we moved on here.
2:09
SPEAKER_05: You obviously have no like accent whatsoever, which is neutraled.
2:13
SPEAKER_05: So a little bit of the New York, I would have thought, if you that's where you spent most of your time.
2:17
SPEAKER_05: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
2:17
SPEAKER_03: If you met me when I was seven years old, I f I sounded like I was from Jersey Shore, just a seven-year-old version of it.
2:23
SPEAKER_05: One of those Jersey guys, huh?
2:24
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
2:24
SPEAKER_03: It was it was I lived in Long Island, New York, so it was a heavy, heavy New York accent.
2:28
SPEAKER_05: You would have I knew most of those.
2:30
SPEAKER_05: I grew up in Buffalo, so I the Buffalo accent way different than the other side of the State, right?
2:35
SPEAKER_05: And I don't really have much of one anymore, but my family all still does.
2:38
SPEAKER_05: Right.
2:39
SPEAKER_05: So I I know the eastern side of the state, and it is even down to boroughs with specific accents.
2:45
SPEAKER_05: I mean I know the Long Island one is kind of a little bit of that.
2:48
SPEAKER_05: And then you got Brooklyn, you got those guys, right?
2:51
SPEAKER_05: And so then there's a it's a such a diverse area.
2:54
SPEAKER_05: It lends itself to that, I suppose.
2:56
SPEAKER_05: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
2:56
SPEAKER_05: Definitely.
2:57
SPEAKER_03: So you mostly grew up in the island in Long Island?
2:59
SPEAKER_03: Well, I was there until I was seven, and then we moved up to Brunswick, Maine, which is about thirty minutes north of Portland.
3:04
SPEAKER_03: So it's on the southern coast of Maine.
3:06
SPEAKER_03: So you're a Mainer?
3:07
SPEAKER_03: A Mainer, and I developed a New England accent for a little while.
3:11
SPEAKER_03: Dropping wickets and uh you know bahabas all over the place.
3:15
SPEAKER_03: And then uh and then two days before my freshman year high school started, we moved down here to Hendersonville.
3:20
SPEAKER_05: So the moving, is that because uh your family job of military something?
3:24
SPEAKER_03: No, it was uh we moved up to uh Maine because my aunt and uncle lived there.
3:29
SPEAKER_03: They were stationed up there at the Brunswick Naval Air Station uh when my parents split, and then I have three sisters and we're all consecutive ages.
3:37
SPEAKER_03: So it would have been theoretically three college bills almost or four college bills at the same time at one point, and the state schools in Maine were not the greatest, and they were three times more expensive than here.
3:47
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
3:48
SPEAKER_03: My parents narrowed down to two states, and it was Nevada and North Carolina, and we went to our favorite pizza place in uh in Maine and we flipped a coin and North Carolina won.
3:56
SPEAKER_03: And so You legitimately flipped a coin and abided by the flip.
4:02
SPEAKER_03: Correct.
4:04
SPEAKER_03: They started at the research triangle, they took a month off in the summer, and they started at the research triangle and kept moving west, liked Astral, and then found Hendersonville.
4:12
SPEAKER_03: Wow.
4:12
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
4:13
SPEAKER_05: That would have been my something people don't know.
4:15
SPEAKER_05: Listen, we flipped a coin.
4:16
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
4:17
SPEAKER_05: That's crazy.
4:18
SPEAKER_05: It is.
4:18
SPEAKER_05: My my brother had a similar plan.
4:20
SPEAKER_05: His didn't work out very well.
4:22
SPEAKER_05: He had heard that Arizona will pay for your education if you're an Arizona resident, right?
4:27
SPEAKER_05: So he moved to Arizona without doing much research.
4:30
SPEAKER_05: All right, this is pre-internet.
4:31
SPEAKER_05: So he moves to Arizona, he gets out there, he applies, he is not accepted to the colleges that would offer that particular thing.
4:38
SPEAKER_05: Classic.
4:39
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, Arizona State, University of Arizona, he tried.
4:42
SPEAKER_05: But by then he had purchased like a 1974 Cougar.
4:45
SPEAKER_05: Heck yeah.
4:46
SPEAKER_05: Which is like this big, huge American car with a massive front end if you've ever seen these things.
4:52
SPEAKER_05: He drove this thing back from Arizona to Buffalo, and my dad, who was a gearhead, is like, how did this car make it?
5:00
SPEAKER_05: That's crazy.
5:00
SPEAKER_05: Had like three cylinders left by the time it pulled in the driveway.
5:03
SPEAKER_05: So that was He did not have as much success with the plan for the college as you and your family did.
5:09
SPEAKER_05: Right.
5:10
SPEAKER_05: So where did you go to school then?
5:12
SPEAKER_05: Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.
5:12
SPEAKER_03: Well, I went to UNCA for two years.
5:14
SPEAKER_03: All right.
5:14
SPEAKER_03: And then transferred to UNC Charlotte and graduated from there in 2002.
5:18
SPEAKER_05: So in Asheville.
5:20
SPEAKER_05: So you knew about Asheville, graduated from Charlotte.
5:22
SPEAKER_05: What brought you back here to work for the Asheville Police Department?
5:25
SPEAKER_05: Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.
5:25
SPEAKER_03: See, I graduated in 2002 with a bachelor's in finance.
5:29
SPEAKER_03: I worked in Charlotte for a year at Bank of America, and it was the worst job.
5:33
SPEAKER_03: Not the company, but just looking at a spreadsheet all day was not my cup of tea.
5:37
SPEAKER_03: Uh I ended up moving back here and worked at Jerusalem Garden downtown.
5:40
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
5:41
SPEAKER_03: So I started working there when I was like 21, 22 years old.
5:44
SPEAKER_03: And then I stayed there for like five years.
5:47
SPEAKER_03: Moved back to Charlotte and then back here.
5:49
SPEAKER_03: I always wanted to be a police officer.
5:51
SPEAKER_03: My grandfather was one.
5:53
SPEAKER_03: He was a lieutenant for the narcotics division in Harlem back in the 50s.
5:57
SPEAKER_03: Wow, but he's got some stories.
5:58
SPEAKER_03: He does.
5:59
SPEAKER_03: I wanted to follow in his his footsteps.
6:01
SPEAKER_03: I applied at APD several times, and the third time they they gave me the shot in 2014 I started.
6:07
SPEAKER_05: You know, you see that a lot with some people saying I wanted to be in law enforcement.
6:11
SPEAKER_05: I had thought about it because of a family history.
6:14
SPEAKER_05: You see that a lot.
6:14
SPEAKER_05: It could be a father, it could be a grandfather, it could be something even more distant.
6:17
SPEAKER_05: You're exposed to it just a little bit, and you're like, I think that could be for me.
6:21
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
6:21
SPEAKER_05: And so it was.
6:22
SPEAKER_03: Yep.
6:23
SPEAKER_03: And so he was undercover, and that's what I wanted to do.
6:26
SPEAKER_03: And so I tried to gear my career towards it.
6:29
SPEAKER_03: I was older.
6:29
SPEAKER_03: I I was 34 in the academy.
6:31
SPEAKER_03: I think I was like the second oldest person in my academy class.
6:34
SPEAKER_03: So I knew once I started FTO and and my first couple years on patrol to keep an open mind because I may not like doing drug work.
6:41
SPEAKER_03: I may like being an SRO or whatever.
6:43
SPEAKER_03: So it was just I kept my mind open to see what a what would I would like.
6:47
SPEAKER_05: Well, you were detective, Brad Beto, for a time, correct?
6:50
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
6:51
SPEAKER_03: So I did patrol for I was on day shift with my primary FTO.
6:55
SPEAKER_03: Uh we were B partners, fortunately enough.
6:57
SPEAKER_03: We got along great and we were very proactive.
6:59
SPEAKER_03: So we we killed it on the day shift and he went to DWI task force.
7:03
SPEAKER_03: And I wanted to also do DWIs, so I voluntarily switched with somebody on nights.
7:08
SPEAKER_03: We just swapped positions.
7:10
SPEAKER_03: Um he was a Charlie A night officer.
7:12
SPEAKER_03: I I I was a day, so we just swapped and I started working nights, focusing on traffic and DWIs.
7:18
SPEAKER_03: And then they had just changed the district.
7:20
SPEAKER_03: So Charlie district included Hillcrest and Klondike and a lot of the public housing.
7:24
SPEAKER_03: And honestly, I was terrified of the public housing aspect of it.
7:28
SPEAKER_03: But you're forced to be in those areas and I grew to love it.
7:31
SPEAKER_03: It's my favorite place to be.
7:32
SPEAKER_03: So I put in for public housing unit after that, and then CID, and then I went to the drug suppression unit, street crimes, impact, or impact street crimes, and then major case, and then I got promoted.
7:43
SPEAKER_03: And now, back to public housing.
7:45
SPEAKER_03: Today is day one.
7:46
SPEAKER_05: First day?
7:47
SPEAKER_05: Day one.
7:47
SPEAKER_05: Oh, is it?
7:48
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
7:48
SPEAKER_05: I thought for some reason it was over the weekend.
7:50
SPEAKER_05: I guess July 4th begins the pay period, I suppose, but it was kind of this is getting into the new rhythm and all of that.
7:56
SPEAKER_05: So you're the leader of the new Hackathine.
7:58
SPEAKER_05: This is something that we had in one of the areas we had to back off of because of, quite frankly, not enough officers.
8:05
SPEAKER_05: We lost officers.
8:06
SPEAKER_05: We had to do away with temporarily the traffic safety unit and the housing unit and even the bicycle unit downtown.
8:13
SPEAKER_05: We're starting to get those back online now.
8:15
SPEAKER_05: And so this is the housing unit.
8:17
SPEAKER_05: And so an area that you're familiar with.
8:19
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
8:20
SPEAKER_05: Just like old hat then, just getting on a bike back again?
8:22
SPEAKER_03: Uh absolutely.
8:23
SPEAKER_03: Evan and I both actually used to work on the housing housing team.
8:26
SPEAKER_03: He was one of the original members.
8:28
SPEAKER_03: Interestingly enough, our careers have kind of paralleled each other.
8:32
SPEAKER_03: He went to DSU, I went to DSU.
8:34
SPEAKER_03: But he's been my supervisor since I got to street crimes.
8:37
SPEAKER_03: And he was my supervisor on patrol when I got promoted, and now he's my supervisor again over the Hacker team.
8:43
SPEAKER_03: But we both have experience.
8:44
SPEAKER_03: I've kept my pulse on housing.
8:46
SPEAKER_03: I've helped people that were on the housing unit after I got off the team and went to CID.
8:50
SPEAKER_03: I've been in contact with the property managers ever since I've been on the housing team.
8:53
SPEAKER_03: So they're very familiar with me.
8:55
SPEAKER_03: It's it's a natural progression, to be honest with you.
8:57
SPEAKER_03: Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.
8:57
SPEAKER_05: Let's explain uh to folks that aren't as familiar uh with what this team is, what it does, how many of you.
9:04
SPEAKER_05: I believe there's six, correct?
9:05
SPEAKER_05: There's six.
9:06
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
9:07
SPEAKER_05: Six plus you, or are you part of the six?
9:09
SPEAKER_05: Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.
9:09
SPEAKER_05: Six plus me.
9:10
SPEAKER_05: Okay, so as the leader of that group.
9:11
SPEAKER_05: And they're rotating basically among all of the housing developments, of which I believe there's ten.
9:17
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
9:18
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
9:18
SPEAKER_05: So explain to folks how this is going to work logistically.
9:22
SPEAKER_03: Aaron Ross Powell Logistically, we have um four right now, two more are gonna come in August, and then myself and what we're gonna do is uh we're gonna divide up the public housing units.
9:31
SPEAKER_03: So for instance, when I was on the unit, I was in Charlie District, spent most of my time in Hillcrest and Klondike.
9:36
SPEAKER_03: So I got those two properties to manage.
9:39
SPEAKER_03: And what that means to manage is we meet with the property manager on a weekly basis.
9:44
SPEAKER_03: We conduct community meetings at their community centers to go over with any residents that show up, answer any questions they may have.
9:51
SPEAKER_03: And so any concerns, any complaints, any community events, like for instance this weekend they're having a Hillcrest reunion that we're gonna be a part of, that officer would kind of spearhead that.
10:01
SPEAKER_03: Um any investigations that they proactively do in that neighborhood, he's responsible for that as well.
10:06
SPEAKER_05: Aaron Ross Powell So officers will kind of float among the ones they're assigned to, and they're not just gonna set up shopping one and stay there.
10:12
SPEAKER_05: Correct.
10:12
SPEAKER_03: And then and oftentimes, especially, you know, especially in the summertime when people are on annual leave, we'll all go together a lot of times.
10:19
SPEAKER_03: So it'll be if something's happening in Hillcrest, all six or seven of us will go and we'll go as a team.
10:24
SPEAKER_03: So they tend to call that wolf packing.
10:26
SPEAKER_03: So we'll wolf pack a lot of stuff.
10:28
SPEAKER_05: Day one, first day.
10:29
SPEAKER_05: So you haven't had a chance to get out there among the people yet so much.
10:32
SPEAKER_05: But are are you already starting to get a vibe just from talking with leadership and others that it's going to be a positive experience?
10:39
SPEAKER_05: People want you there.
10:40
SPEAKER_03: Aaron Ross Powell I believe so.
10:41
SPEAKER_03: Um we had the task force in March where it was I supervised four officers uh and we were strictly kind of doing exactly what our job function is now.
10:50
SPEAKER_03: I made it known that this team was coming about.
10:54
SPEAKER_03: And um they hadn't selected me or asked me to be the leader of the team yet.
10:57
SPEAKER_03: But I've talked to a lot of residents and a lot of residents that even in the middle of a critical incident that come and talk to us are super stoked that we're gonna be there because they are have seen the difference between when the housing team is not there and and when it is.
11:10
SPEAKER_05: Sergeant Brad Beto joins me now.
11:12
SPEAKER_05: And I've I've spoken with this about Chief Step with Deputy Chief Artemis, in that this initiative is something that was really it starts with them, with the housing unit, with Ella and all their their team over there wanting the APD presence there.
11:26
SPEAKER_05: And a majority of the things that are happening, the illegal things that are happening, the crimes that are happening, people are bringing to those communities.
11:34
SPEAKER_05: It's not the people that live in the community where the majority of the problems are coming from.
11:38
SPEAKER_05: 100 percent.
11:39
SPEAKER_03: Most of the people that we're having to deal with, they may have grown up there and they may have been raised there for a little bit, but they no longer live there, and they're just bringing it to that area.
11:50
SPEAKER_03: And that's unfortunate for the residents that are just trying to use it what it's intended to be, which is a stepping stone to help their life progress to better places and improvements, because they offer a lot more than just housing.
12:02
SPEAKER_03: Um, I think the plans that they have that Ella's shown me and Allison has shown me are gonna be you guys are gonna be amazed at what housing is gonna be in the future.
12:11
SPEAKER_03: And I'm just glad to be a part of that.
12:12
SPEAKER_05: Aaron Ross Powell What's your primary focus going to be now that you're hitting the ground running and you said day one?
12:17
SPEAKER_05: So what is gonna be the primary focus?
12:19
SPEAKER_05: What is the really gonna try and tackle first?
12:22
SPEAKER_03: Aaron Ross Powell The biggest issues that we have in that area of public housing consistently is gonna be drug and gun violence.
12:28
SPEAKER_03: I mean, as you saw over the weekend in in Maplecrest, there was a shooting.
12:33
SPEAKER_03: There are a lot of shootings that don't make it to the press that the public doesn't realize that happens.
12:38
SPEAKER_03: People may not have gotten shot.
12:39
SPEAKER_03: Buildings or cars may not have gotten shot.
12:41
SPEAKER_03: It's just a shots fired.
12:43
SPEAKER_03: I think the public would be amazed at how many shots fired call that patrol or other units, you know, get called out to.
12:49
SPEAKER_05: We see that a lot.
12:50
SPEAKER_05: Uh in the incidents where nothing is hit, nobody is hit.
12:54
SPEAKER_05: Is that something where somebody is trying to send a message and just scare somebody else?
12:58
SPEAKER_05: Is that what's happening there?
12:59
SPEAKER_03: It could be that, or it could be something as stupid as uh it's New Year's Eve and we're drunk and we just want to go outside of our apartment and pop off a few rounds.
13:07
SPEAKER_03: It's up to us to investigate that and see what we can find out.
13:12
SPEAKER_03: The residents are the best source of information.
13:15
SPEAKER_03: Um we had something similar happen on New Year's Eve, which is why I brought that up.
13:19
SPEAKER_03: And we were able to solve it right then and there.
13:21
SPEAKER_03: But even if nothing is shot and we find showcasings, it could be linked to several other shootings where somebody was shot.
13:28
SPEAKER_03: So it's important that we investigate, even though it's been one call or two calls, but nobody says anything.
13:34
SPEAKER_05: Well, it sounds like you're excited to get back into the housing units, and they're excited to have you.
13:38
SPEAKER_05: So, Sergeant Brad Beto, thank you for taking time talking about that today.
13:41
SPEAKER_05: We're looking forward to all the progress you can make there.
13:43
SPEAKER_05: My pleasure.
13:43
SPEAKER_05: Thank you for having me.
13:46
SPEAKER_05: Joined now by Sergeant Hunter Wellbourne.
13:48
SPEAKER_05: Sergeant, thank you for joining me.
13:50
SPEAKER_05: Good morning.
13:50
SPEAKER_05: So I wanted to get you in here to talk about this fun day, this public safety day out there at Biltmore Church with uh fire trucks and police vehicles and drones and bouncy houses and food and fun for the whole family.
14:04
SPEAKER_05: And then total buzzkill, we had a heck of a week on the roadways of western North Carolina.
14:09
SPEAKER_05: Three motor vehicle collisions that resulted in fatalities, two of those involving motorcycles and two other very serious collisions, just more reminders, like we needed more, how dangerous the roads around Asheville, especially the interstates, can be if you're distracted or drunk or speeding or any combination of those.
14:30
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
14:31
SPEAKER_01: Uh it's one of those things that most people uh don't think about, or if they do think about it, they think it won't ever happen to them.
14:38
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and that genuinely leads to the uh the increase in distraction, the increases in speed, and things like that.
14:46
SPEAKER_01: Uh it only takes a split second to uh lose control of your vehicle or for something to happen that you weren't expecting, and it results in something devastating.
14:55
SPEAKER_05: Aaron Powell I'm not sure this is the number one reason for collisions, but something that I see on the roadways you pull up to a red light, right?
15:00
SPEAKER_05: You got a few minutes, you look around because you're bored, and what you see is everybody on their phones.
15:07
SPEAKER_05: And odds are they're not gonna put it down when they pull away.
15:11
SPEAKER_05: So distracted driving.
15:12
SPEAKER_05: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
15:13
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
15:13
SPEAKER_01: Distractions are always gonna be at an all-time high.
15:16
SPEAKER_01: With the traffic safety unit, we try and focus on kind of the four major things that we see that typically result in either greater injury and or fatality collisions.
15:26
SPEAKER_01: That's gonna be your speed, any type of impairment, the failure to wear a seatbelt, and then distracted driving uh by electronic device, be it the radio, tablets, uh cell phones are a big thing.
15:39
SPEAKER_01: I actually stopped a gentleman the other day for uh a routine speeding offense, and when I walked up to his car, he had uh a YouTube video playing on his cell phone that was mounted to his dash right in the middle of his line of sight.
15:52
SPEAKER_01: So that tells me that he was not only uh distracted by that, but he was also pulled over for traveling in excess of 30 miles an hour over the posted speed limit.
16:01
SPEAKER_05: You know, I think most of us have gone a few miles over the limit.
16:04
SPEAKER_05: Certainly when I was a younger man, I probably had a little more of a lead foot.
16:07
SPEAKER_05: And maybe you can chalk this up to age, but the older that I get, part of it is like, listen, wherever I'm going is going to be there when I get there.
16:16
SPEAKER_05: Don't be in such a hurry.
16:18
SPEAKER_05: 10 and 2, hands in the wheel, be aware of your surroundings.
16:21
SPEAKER_05: And it's just mind-boggling how many people don't put any thought at all into the act of driving and they're just not paying attention.
16:29
SPEAKER_01: Right.
16:30
SPEAKER_01: And it's it's just a change in that that culture and that mindset uh and then that invincibility uh feeling uh surrounded by a car.
16:38
SPEAKER_01: And yes, uh cars, especially nowadays, have gotten much, much safer than they used to be with uh restraint systems and then your airbags and the crumple zones that are built into cars for manufacturers.
16:48
SPEAKER_01: So yes, they're absolutely much safer than they would have been back in the day uh during their first uh manufacture, but that doesn't alleviate all the danger uh that comes with operating a motor vehicle.
17:00
SPEAKER_01: As it comes to speed directly, when you're dealing with somebody that's uh speeding, uh you always get the I'm gonna be late for work or I'm going to be late for my appointment or something's happened that's gonna cause you to be late.
17:14
SPEAKER_01: And typically when you're speeding, if you're in a 60 mile an hour zone and you increase your speed to 75 or 80, you're you're cutting minutes, if that, off of what your original arrival time would have been.
17:26
SPEAKER_01: So you're you're increasing your travel distance, you're increasing your perception reaction time, and you're increasing your stopping distance that's required to avoid a hazard that is yet to be perceived.
17:37
SPEAKER_01: So when you're when you're traveling at a speed of 80 miles an hour, you're covering almost three football fields in a matter of four or five seconds.
17:44
SPEAKER_01: And that's about how long it takes to send a simple one-sentence text message.
17:48
SPEAKER_01: You've taken your eyes off the road for four seconds and you look up and you've traveled four football fields and don't know what's about to happen in front of you.
17:54
SPEAKER_01: So the speeding, the distracted driving, all of it is completely and 100% preventable.
17:59
SPEAKER_01: Like it always wear your seatbelt, slow down.
18:02
SPEAKER_01: If you're gonna be late, it's not worth your life or somebody else's life.
18:05
SPEAKER_01: Make sure you're not driving while you're impaired.
18:07
SPEAKER_01: If you've had anything to drink or you've got a new medication, whatever it may be, know how it's going to affect you prior to driving and set up a secondary plan.
18:15
SPEAKER_01: If you plan to consume alcohol or anything like that, it's the summertime, so people are gonna have cookouts and parties and all that stuff.
18:20
SPEAKER_01: And make sure that you put your phone down, just drive the car, get to your destination, and whenever you're there safely, then pick it up and handle whatever business you need to handle.
18:31
SPEAKER_01: Because I can promise you, if you get yourself into a collision, whatever business you were handling there is no longer gonna be relevant or important.
18:37
SPEAKER_05: Like a seatbelt played into a fatality we just had, didn't it?
18:41
SPEAKER_05: On 240, that person was thrown from the vehicle.
18:43
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
18:44
SPEAKER_05: And that resulted in his death.
18:45
SPEAKER_05: Now, who knows if he would have lived through the crash with his seatbelt on, but better chances.
18:51
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
18:52
SPEAKER_01: Seatbelts are there to uh keep people in the seat.
18:56
SPEAKER_01: That is the purpose behind them, and it's part of the restraint system that's built into the cars.
19:02
SPEAKER_01: And without going too far into detail with it, uh the seat belt is meant to lock in place whenever the car detects a crash.
19:11
SPEAKER_01: So there's a little piston that fires and locks your retractor in place so it will not extend out, and it gives you what's called the ride-down effect, which slows your body down.
19:20
SPEAKER_01: Because if you're traveling at 60 miles an hour in a vehicle and then you hit a rock wall, your body in the seat, whether you know it or not, is still traveling 60 miles an hour.
19:28
SPEAKER_01: So you always have three collisions with every crash.
19:31
SPEAKER_01: You've got the vehicle hitting another vehicle or an object in the roadway, you've got whatever you hit as a person inside your car, and then whatever your internal organs hit as a result of that.
19:42
SPEAKER_01: So all of the restraint systems and the airbags are designed to slow you down over a gradual uh time because if you have time over distance, you're in the space that you're slowing yourself down, it greatly reduces your chance of injury.
19:55
SPEAKER_01: But if you fail to use your seatbelt, then your airbags aren't going to help you either.
19:59
SPEAKER_05: Sergeant Hunter Wellbourne joins me.
20:01
SPEAKER_05: Here's something that I've seen just about every morning, at least one person doing this.
20:05
SPEAKER_05: My route to work is primarily interstates.
20:08
SPEAKER_05: Unless I see a huge backup, I'm taking the interstates, right, every day, because it's the quickest way traditionally to get there.
20:14
SPEAKER_05: Exit 44 off of I-40 is basically where I get on the interstate.
20:18
SPEAKER_05: I live nearby there.
20:19
SPEAKER_05: So I take 40 to 240 through downtown, right?
20:24
SPEAKER_05: With all the construction, with all of the traffic.
20:26
SPEAKER_05: Something that I see virtually every day is somebody trying to jockey for the best spot and to get there faster than everybody else, right?
20:34
SPEAKER_05: Absolutely.
20:35
SPEAKER_05: They're weaving in and out of lanes.
20:36
SPEAKER_05: They think this lane's faster, they think this lane is faster.
20:40
SPEAKER_05: Now 90 something percent of us are just following the line because they realize you're not going to get there any quicker, right?
20:46
SPEAKER_05: But there's always one or two people that are zip-zip zipping, right?
20:49
SPEAKER_05: And you get toward like where I'm going and I'm getting off my exit, and what do I see but the person that was zipping all over the place is right there with me.
20:59
SPEAKER_04: Right.
21:00
SPEAKER_05: And I just kind of followed the line, right?
21:03
SPEAKER_05: So he risked all of that to get where he was going no quicker than me.
21:08
SPEAKER_01: Right.
21:08
SPEAKER_01: It it's it's it's a perception that people have that they feel like if they're driving faster or they're passing another car or they're getting to their destination faster.
21:16
SPEAKER_01: It's it's it's a facade that they've somehow developed in their mind, but it's it's something we see every day.
21:22
SPEAKER_01: And anybody that drives a car on the on the road is going to see it.
21:26
SPEAKER_01: And you get to a point, and it's just like you said, your destination might be similar to that person.
21:31
SPEAKER_01: You're going to end up at a red light, and the person that wants to get behind you and act aggressive or blow their horn or throw their hands up because you're riding in the left lane, and then they pass you at a high rate of speed on the right, is sitting at the same red light that you're sitting at now.
21:44
SPEAKER_01: Uh it's just an impatience, not necessarily arrogance, but this perceived importance that wherever they're going is more important than somebody else, and uh they have the right to drive aggressively or to behave in a manner that not only jeopardizes their life, but other people's.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: As well.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: And when we're coming into uh we're in the we're in the heat of the summer now, travelers are uh always gonna ramp up.
22:07
SPEAKER_01: Uh you've got people driving through Asheville, people driving to Asheville.
22:11
SPEAKER_01: Vacations are at an all-time high, so you're gonna have more and more families on the roadway.
22:15
SPEAKER_01: So the opportunity for serious injury collisions and fatality collisions is gonna be exponentially greater because you just have a greater number of people either walking around or driving around on the roadways.
22:26
SPEAKER_01: So if we continue this behavior of uh selfish driving and just unsafe driving, then we're going to continue to see the trend that we've experienced here lately, which is uh unfortunately three fatality collisions uh followed by two serious injury collisions that have ultimately changed the lives, if not ending in a fatality themselves uh prior to uh getting discharged from the hospital in less than seven days.
22:51
SPEAKER_05: So you just wrapped up the uh Operation Firecracker, lose it and lose it.
22:55
SPEAKER_05: And I saw some results from that, some positive results, uh hoping to change some driver behavior.
23:00
SPEAKER_05: And sure enough, just a couple of days after that is over, we see a couple of DUIs in town with some some bad results.
23:06
SPEAKER_05: And so the message is still needing to get out there in our various campaigns.
23:11
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
23:11
SPEAKER_01: Uh the Governor's Highway Safety puts on the campaigns uh throughout the year and they kind of range, again, focusing on those key points of what we see that increase the chances of severity and collisions.
23:24
SPEAKER_01: So speed is one that's a focus, impaired driving is a focus, seat belts are a focus, distracted driving, child passenger safety stuff.
23:33
SPEAKER_01: So a lot of that comes into play with these different campaigns, and it's up to uh law enforcement to go out and try and do this corrective action uh to change people's behavior, ultimately to make them safer.
23:43
SPEAKER_01: Now, nobody likes to see the blue lights turn on behind them, and nobody wants to receive that ticket, but ultimately we're not out here to make people angry.
23:52
SPEAKER_01: We're out here to make people aware and to make them smarter because nobody in this earth can depict when they're gonna be involved in a crash.
24:02
SPEAKER_01: It's an impossible thing to do unless you intentionally run your car off the road into a tree, which I don't see that very often.
24:08
SPEAKER_01: You're not gonna know when the crash is gonna happen.
24:11
SPEAKER_01: So if you prepare to prevent the crash before it happens, then you're gonna be ready and have the best likely outcome of survival and the fewest amount of injuries because you just you don't know.
24:22
SPEAKER_01: That's why you have to always wear your seatbelt.
24:24
SPEAKER_01: You have to always drive the speed limit, you have to always maintain 100% concentration on the task at hand, which is driving to and from point A and B as safe as possible.
24:32
SPEAKER_05: Changing speeds, let's finish on an up note because you were originally scheduled to come in here to talk about this really fun public safety day.
24:40
SPEAKER_05: So let's do that.
24:41
SPEAKER_01: It's called the Skyland Fire Safety Day.
24:43
SPEAKER_01: I think this is the third annual one that they've put on.
24:46
SPEAKER_01: Uh they had to miss uh a year uh due to some uh like COVID and some other things like that.
24:51
SPEAKER_01: But it's out at the uh Biltmore Church Arden campus on July 25th.
24:55
SPEAKER_01: It opens up to the public at 9 a.m., runs till about two or so in the afternoon.
25:00
SPEAKER_01: But um, if people are still there, we're gonna hang out with them.
25:03
SPEAKER_01: Uh there is no cost to get in.
25:06
SPEAKER_01: It's activities for everybody.
25:08
SPEAKER_01: The Ashville Police Department's gonna be there with uh all of the toys and stuff, the the drone unit, the bomb squad, all that stuff's gonna be out there.
25:15
SPEAKER_01: The Skyline Fire Department will be there with their apparatuses and uh they'll have uh like some drills and stuff like that and live rescues that kids can take part in.
25:25
SPEAKER_01: The Bunham County Sheriff's Office will be out there, wildlife, all of your public safety factors that come into like Buncombe County to include uh Mama, one of the Mama helicopters is gonna make a landing out there.
25:36
SPEAKER_01: Food trucks will be there.
25:38
SPEAKER_01: So if you could think of just a massive uh get-together of all the public safety factors within uh Buncom County, uh bringing out all the good stuff, all the stuff for the kids, um, a lot of activities to do again.
25:52
SPEAKER_01: It's no cost admission to get into it.
25:54
SPEAKER_01: Uh come hang out with us, come see what everybody's got, and then take part in some of the activities that are going to be set up for all the kids to do.
26:00
SPEAKER_01: And uh the first year that the Ashville Police Department has been uh really involved in it.
26:04
SPEAKER_01: But like I said, the Skyland Fire Department's the ones that kind of uh initiated it and they've kind of kept it going, but it seems to be growing larger and larger every year, and I'm thankful that we were able to join it.
26:14
SPEAKER_05: Perfect place, plenty of parking, plenty of room for all the apparatus, and sounds like just a fun day for especially like kids.
26:21
SPEAKER_05: Kids love seeing the big trucks and all the things and the drones and all that.
26:24
SPEAKER_05: So it's just gonna be a fun day, too.
26:26
SPEAKER_05: Absolutely.
26:27
SPEAKER_05: Almost like a carnival of sorts.
26:28
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
26:29
SPEAKER_01: Uh a public safety carnival that uh just kind of gets everybody together and shows what we have to offer uh to the to the residents of Mohammed County and uh to ensure that we kind of instill like, hey, we're here to help and uh we're here to connect with you guys, and then also provide children with not only uh a fun day uh full of activities and stuff, but also kind of teach them the safety aspects of uh what to do in a fire, or um, if you need help from the police, uh who to call and what to expect when they arrive, and then uh EMS will be out there as well.
27:01
SPEAKER_01: So it should just be a fun day full of uh information, uh fun times and learning.
27:07
SPEAKER_05: Okay, give us the uh date and time again.
27:09
SPEAKER_01: July 25th.
27:11
SPEAKER_01: It's a Saturday, and it begins at nine in the morning and runs until about two o'clock uh in the afternoon, but it could run later.
27:17
SPEAKER_05: And that's at the uh Biltmore Church Arden campus, which is the one not too far off of uh Longshoals Road.
27:22
SPEAKER_01: Yep, right there off of Clayton Road that connects with Longshoals Road.
27:24
SPEAKER_01: Uh is uh it'll be in that parking lot, and we'll have uh reserved uh parking area there, and we'll have folks out there to direct everybody where they need to park, and then when you get there, you'll see just a mass of fire trucks, police vehicles, EMS, all kinds of good stuff will be out there ready for everybody.
27:39
SPEAKER_05: Awesome.
27:40
SPEAKER_05: That'll be fun.
27:40
SPEAKER_05: Sergeant Hunter Wellbourne, thanks so much for joining me.
27:42
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
27:42
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
27:43
SPEAKER_05: We'll see you out there.
27:45
SPEAKER_05: Getting to know Officer Dalton Green, and for the second time in about a week, I'm saying thank you for joining me.
27:51
SPEAKER_05: First time was last week with Mark Starling on our regular Asheville Police Department spot, Thursday mornings about 810 on News Radio 570 WWNC.
28:00
SPEAKER_05: And now, thank you for this and changing up your schedule to do it because you just started solo nights, what, this week, right?
28:07
SPEAKER_05: Yes, sir.
28:08
SPEAKER_05: Last night.
28:08
SPEAKER_05: Last night?
28:09
SPEAKER_05: Yes, sir.
28:10
SPEAKER_05: So you had one hole shift by yourself.
28:12
SPEAKER_05: One hole shift.
28:13
SPEAKER_05: Do you get that new car smell or do you're sharing with somebody?
28:16
SPEAKER_02: Uh I am sharing with somebody, but he he actually had the car pretty nice.
28:19
SPEAKER_02: Uh it smells great, actually.
28:20
SPEAKER_02: So he put up a bunch of uh uh scented like little trees and stuff.
28:24
SPEAKER_02: So that's nice.
28:25
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, he's good, he's good.
28:26
SPEAKER_05: Little scented tree hanging from the dash there.
28:28
SPEAKER_05: It's uh like a welcome to the car, yeah.
28:31
SPEAKER_05: So who's the officer you're sharing with?
28:33
SPEAKER_05: Uh Juan Nunez.
28:34
SPEAKER_05: Is that one of the newer ones as well, or is he a vet?
28:36
SPEAKER_05: He was in my class.
28:37
SPEAKER_05: A bunch of rookies just kind of figuring things out, right?
28:39
SPEAKER_05: Yes, sir.
28:40
SPEAKER_05: Okay, well we'll just start right there then.
28:41
SPEAKER_05: How was your first shift?
28:42
SPEAKER_02: Uh it was actually really fun.
28:43
SPEAKER_02: I think it was a really good shift to have um for the first night solo.
28:47
SPEAKER_02: Um it didn't get too, too crazy, but we still got out and and found some things to do and and kind of got comfortable doing things without somebody there with me.
28:55
SPEAKER_05: Aaron Powell You kind of wonder if when you're starting a job like that, do you want to ease in or do you just want to slap in the face, you know, and just jump into the deep end, you know?
29:05
SPEAKER_02: Aaron Powell Yeah, no, I think it definitely depends on who you're with, depending on the team, you know?
29:09
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
29:09
SPEAKER_02: Uh you get in there and you're like, I kind of want to ease into it.
29:11
SPEAKER_02: And some of them are like, nah, we're gonna we got stuff to do.
29:13
SPEAKER_02: Let's go.
29:14
SPEAKER_05: Aaron Powell So what's your district?
29:15
SPEAKER_05: I'm in West.
29:16
SPEAKER_05: You're in West?
29:16
SPEAKER_05: Yes, sir.
29:17
SPEAKER_05: So you're gonna be seeing some things.
29:19
SPEAKER_05: Potentially.
29:19
SPEAKER_05: That is one of our more active areas for a lot of different things.
29:24
SPEAKER_05: Uh so we'll talk about your journey here in a few minutes, but something I already know.
29:29
SPEAKER_05: Okay, one of the questions we always ask is where someone's front.
29:31
SPEAKER_05: So I already know you're from Texas, right?
29:33
SPEAKER_05: Yes, sir.
29:33
SPEAKER_05: Here's the weird part.
29:34
SPEAKER_05: If I had to guess without knowing, I would still guess you were from Texas.
29:38
SPEAKER_05: And I I I can't quite figure out why that is.
29:41
SPEAKER_05: It's not like you're wearing like a Dallas Cowboys t-shirt.
29:43
SPEAKER_05: Right.
29:43
SPEAKER_05: You you don't got spurs on or a cowboy hat, but for some reason you just scream Texas.
29:48
SPEAKER_05: I think that's a I think it's a good thing.
29:50
SPEAKER_05: I'm not saying it's bad, but can you explain that to me?
29:54
SPEAKER_02: Why it you you you look like you're from Texas?
29:56
SPEAKER_02: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
29:56
SPEAKER_02: You know, I don't I don't know.
29:57
SPEAKER_02: A lot of people um say that people don't want to leave Texas.
30:01
SPEAKER_02: They grew up in Texas, that's where they want to be.
30:03
SPEAKER_02: And I think I think that may just breed a certain type of person.
30:07
SPEAKER_02: Maybe that's what it is.
30:08
SPEAKER_02: Um but aside from that, I'm not really I'm not really sure.
30:10
SPEAKER_02: Aaron Powell, What part of Texas?
30:12
SPEAKER_02: I grew up in East Texas.
30:13
SPEAKER_02: East Texas.
30:13
SPEAKER_02: Like near Tyler, yes, sir.
30:15
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
30:15
SPEAKER_05: So is that the biggest city to you then, Tyler, Texas?
30:17
SPEAKER_05: Tyler is the biggest city where I've where I'm from, yes, sir.
30:19
SPEAKER_05: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
30:19
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
30:20
SPEAKER_05: And so for people that don't know the state of Texas, first of all, it's massive.
30:24
SPEAKER_05: Explain to them kind of where Tyler is located.
30:26
SPEAKER_05: You say east, but in a state that's what, a thousand miles wide or more.
30:31
SPEAKER_05: It's probably more wide than, right?
30:32
SPEAKER_05: It's quite a bit.
30:33
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
30:33
SPEAKER_05: It's it's up there.
30:34
SPEAKER_05: So you're basically on the border of Mississippi almost over the far side almost?
30:38
SPEAKER_02: Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.
30:38
SPEAKER_02: Not not quite to Louisiana or Oklahoma or anything like that.
30:41
SPEAKER_02: Um I'm kind of in that direction about see I don't even know the map.
30:43
SPEAKER_05: I said Mississippi, and it's Louisiana, isn't it?
30:45
SPEAKER_02: It is, yeah.
30:46
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
30:46
SPEAKER_02: Well you you would know I'm trustless.
30:48
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's a I was about two hours uh west of the Louisiana border, um, toward like Shreveport and stuff like that.
30:55
SPEAKER_02: About two hours east-southeast of Dallas.
30:57
SPEAKER_02: Aaron Powell Okay.
30:58
SPEAKER_02: And that's where you were born, too, correct?
31:00
SPEAKER_02: I was actually born in Richardson.
31:01
SPEAKER_02: Um right next to Dallas.
31:02
SPEAKER_02: All right.
31:03
SPEAKER_02: Um but I have no memory there.
31:04
SPEAKER_02: I was I was very young when we left.
31:06
SPEAKER_05: So family moved and Yes, sir.
31:07
SPEAKER_02: And I I lived all over East Texas.
31:09
SPEAKER_02: Um kind of Tyler, Jacksonville, all those different areas in there, Gresham, which is a smaller place.
31:14
SPEAKER_02: All right.
31:15
SPEAKER_02: But yeah, just anywhere in that um east, kind of northeast area of Texas is where I'm where I was up.
31:19
SPEAKER_02: I got you.
31:20
SPEAKER_02: And so when did you leave Texas?
31:22
SPEAKER_02: Uh I left Texas last year in April, April 1st of 2025.
31:27
SPEAKER_02: Just to do this and come here?
31:28
SPEAKER_02: I did.
31:29
SPEAKER_02: So we myself and my now fiance were wanting to uh move out of Texas and we wanted to live somewhere with mountains.
31:35
SPEAKER_02: So I went to a couple different mountain ranges in the U.S.
31:37
SPEAKER_02: to kind of just kind of gauge the area.
31:39
SPEAKER_02: Um and this was actually the closest thing I could find that felt like Texas, but it wasn't Texas and it had mountains.
31:45
SPEAKER_02: Um I started looking into what I wanted to do, found this career choice, um, did a lot of research.
31:50
SPEAKER_02: I wasn't somebody that jumped into it just because they wanted to try it, you know.
31:53
SPEAKER_02: Um I I did a I spent a long time um researching and stuff like that and decided this is what I wanted to do.
31:59
SPEAKER_02: So I moved here on April 1st, started on April 7th.
32:01
SPEAKER_05: Now there there's some mountains in like southern Missouri and Arkansas and that area.
32:06
SPEAKER_05: I lived in Joplin, Missouri for a while.
32:08
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
32:08
SPEAKER_05: And we would go down to, what is that, Eureka Springs, or where is it down there?
32:12
SPEAKER_02: Oh man, I'm not entirely sure.
32:13
SPEAKER_05: There's a there's a city uh that's kind of a tourist town uh in Arkansas.
32:18
SPEAKER_05: Hot Springs.
32:19
SPEAKER_05: It might be.
32:20
SPEAKER_02: I've been to I've been to Hot Springs, and that's a pretty touristy area.
32:23
SPEAKER_02: This is a small town, though.
32:24
SPEAKER_02: It's not real big.
32:25
SPEAKER_02: It's in the in the middle of the Ozarks.
32:26
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, exactly.
32:27
SPEAKER_05: So that might be hot springs.
32:28
SPEAKER_05: That might be it.
32:29
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
32:29
SPEAKER_05: It has like a haunted hotel there.
32:31
SPEAKER_05: That's hot springs.
32:32
SPEAKER_05: Okay, that it's built into it's like built in at the side of a hill.
32:34
SPEAKER_05: It has like this animal sanctuary with like lions and cheetahs and well, this it was long for me as well.
32:41
SPEAKER_05: That would have been the 90s, dude.
32:42
SPEAKER_05: So that wasn't hear that.
32:43
SPEAKER_05: You weren't even probably born yet.
32:44
SPEAKER_05: So not quite.
32:45
SPEAKER_05: Okay, so you chose Asheville, you chose the Asheville Police Department.
32:49
SPEAKER_05: I did.
32:49
SPEAKER_05: And that began your journey along with 20 of your fellow classmates.
32:53
SPEAKER_05: The biggest class we've had since I think it was 2015, and the first in-house academy since I forget what year it was 2013.
33:02
SPEAKER_05: It's something like that.
33:03
SPEAKER_05: So that's when they ceased doing that and then started working with A B Tech, which they still do.
33:08
SPEAKER_05: Uh it's still a program worked with A B Tech, but with the classes and everything, in-house taught.
33:14
SPEAKER_05: So I'm thinking with your class the way it was, I never joined a fraternity in college, right?
33:20
SPEAKER_05: Right.
33:20
SPEAKER_05: But I hear stories from people that have that get these fraternity brothers, this brotherhood with you having this big class, that's kind of how I imagine, like years from now.
33:29
SPEAKER_05: You guys, with this tight fraternity, are are you getting that vibe?
33:32
SPEAKER_05: Because I know you get some close friendships already.
33:34
SPEAKER_02: Uh, I definitely think is as far as like the longevity of that kind of thing of like a fraternity would be, I think that will be something that that we experience.
33:42
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no hazing.
33:42
SPEAKER_02: I'm not talking about the hazing.
33:43
SPEAKER_02: No, no, nothing like that.
33:44
SPEAKER_05: No the crazy parties or nothing.
33:46
SPEAKER_05: I just mean from that, you know, experience and getting to know people and going through things with people.
33:51
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, definitely.
33:52
SPEAKER_02: Um the mental load it puts on you.
33:54
SPEAKER_02: You know, you have these support structures at home, and that is awesome.
33:57
SPEAKER_02: It's a good thing.
33:58
SPEAKER_02: However, those people at home aren't experiencing it with you.
34:01
SPEAKER_02: So while they can listen to you and and kind of you know sympathize, they can't relate to it as much.
34:06
SPEAKER_02: Um so the people we have in our class, I mean, I can't count how many times I myself uh would text or call one of my friends throughout the academy and just kind of talk things over and see how we're all doing.
34:15
SPEAKER_05: So how did that match up with your time at the academy and learning how to be a cop versus going through field training and now one whole shift as a cop?
34:26
SPEAKER_05: Talk to me through that process.
34:27
SPEAKER_05: That the bookwork, the field training, and now one whole shift as a solo.
34:32
SPEAKER_05: So how close are all of those to, you know, each other, I guess?
34:36
SPEAKER_02: Starting out, um, it's not a scared thing because a lot of the people that were training us and stuff like that were very welcoming, but it's it's a strain both mentally and physically more than anything else.
34:45
SPEAKER_02: That would probably be the biggest thing for me throughout the academy is just because I mean you're running really early in the mornings.
34:52
SPEAKER_02: Um I don't think we I don't think we did too much physical work.
34:55
SPEAKER_02: I mean, we did a lot, don't get me wrong, we all benefited.
34:57
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
34:58
SPEAKER_02: Um they they could have made it a lot worse though if they wanted to, I think.
35:01
SPEAKER_02: Uh so I mean we I saw you guys in the gym.
35:03
SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, no, we we still got to we still put in some work, but I think it it could have been a lot worse.
35:07
SPEAKER_02: But doing that in conjunction with with the class work, um having tests or taking a class and then having a test two weeks later while you've already gone over two other classes, um, you know, it's a lot of recalling information and stuff like that.
35:19
SPEAKER_02: So it's pretty stressful mentally.
35:20
SPEAKER_02: Um getting into FTO, it becomes more of an emotional thing, I think.
35:24
SPEAKER_02: The emotional strain on it, having somebody um looking over your shoulder, worrying that you're gonna do something wrong and and somebody be upset with you for it, you know, it becomes a real emotional experience.
35:34
SPEAKER_02: We had some people get upset kind of in that process.
35:36
SPEAKER_02: You know, we still kept with each other and everything.
35:38
SPEAKER_02: So we still got that that tight group where we're talking to each other and everything, but it did transition to more of an emotional challenge in FTO.
35:44
SPEAKER_02: Still stressful, still mentally exhausting.
35:46
SPEAKER_02: Physically, not as much.
35:48
SPEAKER_02: I feel like it's more mind work at that point.
35:50
SPEAKER_02: Um, but then going into solo, um, it's actually a relief.
35:53
SPEAKER_02: Uh you get solo, it's a little uncomfortable at first um having that realization that somebody's not in your car with you, making sure that you don't do anything you're not supposed to.
36:00
SPEAKER_02: Um because while you're an FTO, you know, you have the opportunity to make mistakes and and somebody's there to make sure you won't do anything that will get you into trouble or get you hurt or anything like that.
36:10
SPEAKER_02: Right.
36:11
SPEAKER_05: Make mistakes, just don't make it a bunch of times.
36:12
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
36:13
SPEAKER_02: Right.
36:14
SPEAKER_02: So uh you get you know, you come out of that and and it's it's a little unnerving, you know, to be by yourself and and realize that you have no safety net.
36:22
SPEAKER_02: Um but at the same time you still got teammates and stuff if they're coming with you to risky calls and stuff like that.
36:27
SPEAKER_02: So it all mellows out.
36:28
SPEAKER_02: But I think at the end, it the stress and the weight kind of just reduces.
36:32
SPEAKER_05: Aaron Ross Powell Did you have an experience with a community member like early on in your field training that was just you you didn't know what to do?
36:38
SPEAKER_05: Absolutely.
36:39
SPEAKER_05: Like what to do, what to say.
36:40
SPEAKER_05: A community member that was stressing out, or maybe they're maybe they're on drugs or they're something or they're head or freaking out or whatever they are, and you just like you'd never experienced that before, and you're like, okay, this is new.
36:49
SPEAKER_05: Absolutely.
36:50
SPEAKER_05: What do I do?
36:51
SPEAKER_05: So what do you do?
36:52
SPEAKER_05: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
36:52
SPEAKER_02: The lesson I think I learned the most throughout FTO was that I can solve problems even if I don't know what to do.
36:58
SPEAKER_02: I do have resources to find the answers.
37:01
SPEAKER_02: If it's something that's not right now, right now, you have no time to think.
37:05
SPEAKER_02: Um in those situations, you can you know call a sergeant, call a friend, somebody more experienced, and just kind of talk through it.
37:10
SPEAKER_02: Phone a friend, so to speak.
37:12
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
37:12
SPEAKER_02: Uh now if it's something that's, you know, you got zero seconds to to make a decision, the best thing to do is do the safest option.
37:19
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
37:19
SPEAKER_02: Um and then at least you know you can articulate why you were trying to do something safely.
37:23
SPEAKER_05: Hopefully your training kicks in, you do the right thing.
37:24
SPEAKER_05: And if you don't do the right thing, do the right thing the next time.
37:28
SPEAKER_05: I'm with Officer Dalton Green right now, but your name is Tim.
37:32
SPEAKER_05: So you go by Dalton, which makes me instantly think of a scene from Roadhouse of which you know exactly what I'm talking about.
37:38
SPEAKER_05: Right.
37:39
SPEAKER_05: Your friends must do that to you when you walk in the room, right?
37:42
SPEAKER_05: His name is Dalton.
37:46
SPEAKER_02: My very first week, yeah.
37:48
SPEAKER_02: So everybody well, everybody obviously knew my name was Timothy, and then I went by Dalton.
37:51
SPEAKER_02: But my very first week, uh when I started on April 7th of last year, I met Annie Aiken, who came in.
37:57
SPEAKER_02: Uh, there were three people currently there waiting, uh, myself, Spaceon, and Anderson.
38:02
SPEAKER_02: And she came in and said, Everybody's got nicknames, so we're gonna get you a nickname.
38:06
SPEAKER_02: I was like, okay.
38:07
SPEAKER_02: And she came back upstairs a few minutes later, said, We're calling you Roadhouse.
38:10
SPEAKER_02: So from then on, I was like, okay.
38:12
SPEAKER_02: There's worse nicknames to have.
38:13
SPEAKER_02: There is, there is.
38:14
SPEAKER_02: I I Eichmann got a little upset with me because I hadn't seen the uh original Roadhouse um in a in a long, long time.
38:21
SPEAKER_05: He's got a right to be upset.
38:22
SPEAKER_05: You need to, if you haven't, you need to rewatch that a few years.
38:24
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I got some homework and uh I came back a couple days later.
38:27
SPEAKER_05: I mean the remake's not it's not bad as remakes go.
38:30
SPEAKER_05: Right.
38:30
SPEAKER_05: But the original, I mean, there's just so there's a level of cheese that that's associated with that, but at the same time, such such coolness to it too.
38:39
SPEAKER_05: You know, I mean it is super cheesy in a way, right?
38:42
SPEAKER_05: Some of the things that happened in the but it's also badass.
38:45
SPEAKER_02: I thought it was I mean, it was a pretty good movie.
38:47
SPEAKER_02: I was a little a little underwhelmed as much as everyone hyped it up.
38:49
SPEAKER_02: Because like I said, it's uh it's been so long, I had like uh photos of it in my head, but that was all I could remember of it.
38:55
SPEAKER_02: Uh so uh when Eichmann got upset and told me I had some homework and I had to go watch it, I came back like a week later and I'd watched it and I was like, it's a little underwhelming, but you know, nicknames, I think I know why Annie did that, is because when you could put a whole bunch of people in a room together, it's hard to remember names.
39:09
SPEAKER_05: Oh, very much.
39:10
SPEAKER_05: It's easy to remember nicknames.
39:13
SPEAKER_05: So I did the same thing my first week at college.
39:16
SPEAKER_05: Okay, so the year was 1986.
39:18
SPEAKER_05: Just prepare yourself for that.
39:20
SPEAKER_05: All right.
39:20
SPEAKER_05: So what what year were you born?
39:21
SPEAKER_05: 2000.
39:22
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
39:23
SPEAKER_05: So 14 years before you were born, uh, I'm in a freshman in college, and a bunch of us kind of just I don't know how we got thrown together, but we're just all of a sudden in a group hanging out in the dorms or whatever.
39:34
SPEAKER_05: And so we go to a party at a friend of mine's house.
39:37
SPEAKER_05: I was the only one that knew anybody that was existing, and so we end up on the front porch at the end of this night, all of us still getting to know each other, and we just decide to go around the group and give each other nicknames.
39:47
SPEAKER_05: Because nobody could remember it works, nobody could remember anyone's like Pete.
39:51
SPEAKER_05: I I I know it now, but at the time I couldn't remember his name was Pete.
39:55
SPEAKER_05: So he was Mojo.
39:56
SPEAKER_05: You know, so it everyone had a different name for a different reason.
39:59
SPEAKER_05: And we all remembered each other's nickname right after that.
40:02
SPEAKER_05: So same reason you guys had nicknames.
40:04
SPEAKER_05: Oh, yeah.
40:05
SPEAKER_05: Who had the weirdest nickname in your class?
40:07
SPEAKER_02: Oh man.
40:07
SPEAKER_05: And you don't even have to say what the real name is.
40:09
SPEAKER_05: You can just say their nickname so we don't so we don't call them out.
40:12
SPEAKER_02: What did they give uh uh Moose?
40:14
SPEAKER_02: Moose.
40:15
SPEAKER_02: I think that was probably the the it was funny and had a good reasoning to it.
40:18
SPEAKER_02: Just because he's a he's a big fella.
40:20
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
40:20
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
40:20
SPEAKER_02: But yeah, they went with Moose.
40:22
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
40:22
SPEAKER_05: Uh there's uh there's worse ones to have than Moose.
40:24
SPEAKER_05: I kind of like Moose, after all.
40:26
SPEAKER_05: All right.
40:26
SPEAKER_05: So uh question I always ask everyone sits in that chair right there is something that most people don't know about you.
40:32
SPEAKER_05: So if you haven't uh heard the podcast before, that's gonna throw you a little for a loop.
40:36
SPEAKER_05: But have you given that any thought because you kind of knew that was coming?
40:38
SPEAKER_02: I haven't given it too much thought.
40:40
SPEAKER_02: I feel like uh there's nothing really like strange about me.
40:42
SPEAKER_05: Doesn't have to be strange, you know?
40:44
SPEAKER_02: It could be I think the most interesting thing I can think of is uh I spent a lot of time um working at a drive-thru safari um doing stuff with exotic animals.
40:53
SPEAKER_02: Um and I was not qualified, but I was able to help out with uh like a horn surgery on a Gimsbach one day.
40:59
SPEAKER_05: Okay, that's cool.
41:00
SPEAKER_02: So that's like that's probably the the most interesting one I can think of.
41:03
SPEAKER_05: I don't even know what a Gimsbach is.
41:05
SPEAKER_02: Uh it's a big antelope kind of thing with curly antlers.
41:08
SPEAKER_02: Oh, so kind of like a ram.
41:10
SPEAKER_05: Kind of like a big like a big buckhorn sheep type thing, like a big ram.
41:13
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, if you think about a ram and then mix it with like a like a white-tailed deer.
41:16
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
41:16
SPEAKER_02: Kind of antelope is looking.
41:17
SPEAKER_02: All right.
41:18
SPEAKER_02: It's kind of like that.
41:18
SPEAKER_05: Okay, so you need to meet up with our forensic supervisor, Kristen Norman.
41:22
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
41:22
SPEAKER_05: She was actually a zoologist in Texas.
41:24
SPEAKER_05: Oh, really?
41:25
SPEAKER_05: So there's two things you kind of have in common right there: the animal angle, and she worked in Texas.
41:28
SPEAKER_05: That's wicked.
41:29
SPEAKER_05: And I forget which city right now I can't recall it.
41:32
SPEAKER_05: It might have been Austin, but that's what led her to a career in law enforcement was as that zoologist, which she has a degree in, she started working with a local police department because of all these rabies cases and things like that.
41:43
SPEAKER_05: Right.
41:44
SPEAKER_05: So they needed so and so somehow her kind of desire to know more about law enforcement led her to this path as a scientist, anyway, as a zoologist.
41:54
SPEAKER_05: So now she is our forensics supervisor.
41:56
SPEAKER_05: That's awesome.
41:57
SPEAKER_05: So there you go.
41:57
SPEAKER_05: So you gotta somehow meet up with her.
42:00
SPEAKER_05: And we have a little animal zoo, like a petting zoo type thing uh down in South Carolina called uh Hollywild.
42:06
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
42:06
SPEAKER_05: So if you're just kind of feeling the Jones and you need a second job, you could call them because you have experience on your resume for that.
42:11
SPEAKER_05: There you go.
42:12
SPEAKER_05: But they do a cool thing at uh Christmas time where you can kind of drive through and they they have it all up in lights, and so you'll have like a giraffe like that'll be like kind of wandering up to your vehicle.
42:20
SPEAKER_05: So it's kind of cool.
42:21
SPEAKER_05: I know a lot of people take their families down there.
42:24
SPEAKER_05: So you mentioned uh girlfriend, fiance now, yes, sir.
42:28
SPEAKER_05: Fiance now.
42:29
SPEAKER_05: Okay, so you're planning to get married.
42:31
SPEAKER_05: That's pretty exciting.
42:32
SPEAKER_05: Got a date planned?
42:33
SPEAKER_05: Uh May 8th of 27.
42:35
SPEAKER_05: So next week.
42:36
SPEAKER_05: So less than a year.
42:36
SPEAKER_05: Less than a year.
42:37
SPEAKER_05: Okay, you're gonna do it here or going home?
42:39
SPEAKER_02: Uh we're gonna we're gonna be here.
42:40
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
42:41
SPEAKER_05: Is she a local girl?
42:42
SPEAKER_02: She's not.
42:43
SPEAKER_02: She uh she's from Jersey.
42:44
SPEAKER_02: Uh, I met her at Texas AM when we were both in school there.
42:48
SPEAKER_05: It's just it's the same old story here all the time.
42:50
SPEAKER_05: Texas boy, Jersey girl moved to Asheville.
42:52
SPEAKER_05: All the time, right?
42:53
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, all the time.
42:54
SPEAKER_02: No, that's it's definitely a funny one.
42:57
SPEAKER_05: Well, you've had one shift.
42:59
SPEAKER_05: You tonight will be your second shift.
43:01
SPEAKER_05: Yes, sir.
43:02
SPEAKER_05: Uh is there anything you're doing in preparation for your second shift, things that you learned in your first shift?
43:06
SPEAKER_02: Uh well, I feel like I've spent my first shift just kind of getting comfortable.
43:09
SPEAKER_02: Um, at this point, I'm kind of going into it and knowing what I'll be doing for the next few hours at least, um, you know, in leeway of any calls that come out.
43:17
SPEAKER_02: Um but uh no, I think I'm just I mean, I'm getting fuel, getting everything ready.
43:21
SPEAKER_02: Uh I got all my paperwork caught up right now.
43:23
SPEAKER_02: So I think we're just gonna follow up on some things I did yesterday and see where today takes me.
43:27
SPEAKER_05: Officer Dalton Green, thank you so much and stay safe out there.
43:30
SPEAKER_05: Thank you.
43:30
SPEAKER_05: I appreciate it.
43:32
SPEAKER_05: It's time once again for another History Minute with Hannah Silberman.
43:36
SPEAKER_05: Welcome back, Hannah.
43:37
SPEAKER_00: Glad to be back.
43:38
SPEAKER_05: This one's got a lot of twists and turns, doesn't it?
43:41
SPEAKER_05: Uh, not just the initial incident.
43:43
SPEAKER_05: So we're going back, first of all, 115 years to July of 1911, July 7th of 1911.
43:50
SPEAKER_05: We have a line of duty death involving Officer Edward McConnell.
43:55
SPEAKER_05: It starts weird, it gets weirder, and then it keeps going forward.
44:00
SPEAKER_05: From there.
44:00
SPEAKER_05: So let's just start at the very beginning how Officer McConnell loses his life.
44:05
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
44:05
SPEAKER_00: So on Monday, July 3rd, 1911, Officer McConnell was asked to locate a man who had stole two cows from Henderson County.
44:13
SPEAKER_05: Which is a big deal back in the day.
44:15
SPEAKER_00: It was.
44:15
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
44:16
SPEAKER_00: So he was looking for a man named John Huff, who was known to law enforcement.
44:19
SPEAKER_00: And Officer McConnell, very quickly, because he was a good officer, locates him on South Main Street, which is now Biltmore Avenue, kind of near Victoria Road.
44:27
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
44:28
SPEAKER_00: So as he walks up, Huff had just sold one cow and was walking away with the other cow.
44:32
SPEAKER_04: Gotcha.
44:32
SPEAKER_00: Pretty red-handed.
44:33
SPEAKER_04: Mm-hmm.
44:34
SPEAKER_00: So he arrests him, he searches him, he finds eleven dollars and a watch.
44:38
SPEAKER_00: Gotcha.
44:38
SPEAKER_00: And then he starts walking him back to the jail because again, they didn't have cars or horses or any way to get back.
44:44
SPEAKER_00: So as he's walking him to the jail, a helpful citizen pulls up in his car and says, Hop on in, I'll give you a ride.
44:51
SPEAKER_00: So they're in the back of this car.
44:52
SPEAKER_00: They're puttering on their way up to the town square.
44:56
SPEAKER_05: It's just hard to even imagine this.
44:58
SPEAKER_05: Like cop having to hitch a ride.
45:00
SPEAKER_00: It's just kind of I mean I try to imagine the car in 1911, too.
45:04
SPEAKER_00: So it's more like a wagon.
45:05
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it's kind of like a I guess a Ford Model T or whatever it happens to be.
45:09
SPEAKER_00: Aaron Ross Powell They're in the back seat as they're coming up Biltmore Avenue at about McDowell Street.
45:14
SPEAKER_00: Huff pulls a gun out of his clothes that hadn't been found in the search and he points it at McConnell's face.
45:20
SPEAKER_00: And as he does, McConnell grabs his arm, pulls it down, the gun goes off, and it goes through his chest into his lungs and lodges into his uh ribcage or shit.
45:31
SPEAKER_00: Huff immediately jumps out of this car because I I always imagine it without doors and might have had doors.
45:36
SPEAKER_05: Aaron Powell Might have, but probably pretty easy to get out of as well.
45:38
SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus And he disappears off into the distance.
45:41
SPEAKER_00: And the citizen not knowing what to do just drives McConnell straight to the hospital.
45:45
SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
45:45
SPEAKER_05: Did the best he could.
45:46
SPEAKER_00: McConnell does survive initially, but then he dies several days later in July of 1911.
45:51
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
45:53
SPEAKER_05: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
45:53
SPEAKER_05: He searched for a gun and didn't search well enough, obviously.
45:57
SPEAKER_05: I'm not sure how you miss a gun, but he did.
45:59
SPEAKER_05: And so he's shot and killed, essentially.
46:02
SPEAKER_05: So they know who it is, obviously, because we have the citizen.
46:06
SPEAKER_05: He didn't shoot the citizen, the guy that was driving the car.
46:08
SPEAKER_00: Right.
46:09
SPEAKER_05: And so we've got that guy, and he knew who he was, so we know who this guy is.
46:12
SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Well, this is the the crazy part.
46:14
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, this was not that long after the Will Harris murders.
46:18
SPEAKER_00: So people were pretty upset again that they lost another officer.
46:21
SPEAKER_00: So again, a group of people, a posse, got together to go hunt down John Huff.
46:25
SPEAKER_00: Except there was a rainstorm, so they couldn't track him with the bloodhounds, and he was a much more savvy criminal.
46:31
SPEAKER_00: So he had aliases, he broke into somebody's house and changed his clothes.
46:35
SPEAKER_00: He had contacts to kind of disappear.
46:37
SPEAKER_00: And they were pretty sure he went to South Carolina.
46:40
SPEAKER_00: So they start sending loads of detectives to South Carolina to hunt for him.
46:44
SPEAKER_00: And in fact, it cost so much money to continuously send people that the community raised the money to send our police officers down there to look.
46:51
SPEAKER_00: But they don't find him.
46:53
SPEAKER_00: So for seven months the manhunt continues and the reward gets higher and higher and higher till it's about$27,000 in today's money.
47:02
SPEAKER_00: The problem was that the description of John Huff was very vague and the reward was very high.
47:07
SPEAKER_00: So people started turning in people as John Huff that were not John Hough.
47:11
SPEAKER_04: So it's this guy.
47:12
SPEAKER_04: Yes.
47:13
SPEAKER_04: And it wasn't that guy.
47:14
SPEAKER_04: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
47:14
SPEAKER_00: Like the profile of this, the longer it went on, got higher and higher and higher, and everyone's like, well, I don't like my neighbor, and he looks like this guy.
47:20
SPEAKER_00: And he I don't think he had a good alibi.
47:22
SPEAKER_00: And they would turn him in, or another law enforcement agency would get too excited and think that they had John Huff.
47:27
SPEAKER_00: So they just constantly kept arresting people and being like, oh, well, it's not him.
47:31
SPEAKER_00: And so people kept getting their hopes up, and then they kept getting very disappointed.
47:35
SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
47:35
SPEAKER_05: It's hard to fathom this being such a big issue, like because it's 2026, right?
47:41
SPEAKER_05: And this would never ever happen like this today.
47:43
SPEAKER_05: Trevor Burrus, Yeah.
47:44
SPEAKER_05: But you just got to put yourself in 1911.
47:47
SPEAKER_05: I mean, we are talking pre-World War I.
47:50
SPEAKER_05: So this is way back in the day, and not that long after the end of the Civil War type thing.
47:55
SPEAKER_05: So things are very primitive.
47:56
SPEAKER_05: Aaron Powell.
47:57
SPEAKER_00: In February 1912, the police in Athens, Georgia, arrest a man named Wes Brewer who had been accused of stealing a cow, which seems like it fits, right?
48:07
SPEAKER_00: And he looks a lot like John Huff.
48:09
SPEAKER_00: So they decide that this is actually John Huff and they ship him back to Asheville and they say, okay, yes, we're gonna put him on trial.
48:14
SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
48:15
SPEAKER_05: And I'm sure he told you I'm not John Hough.
48:17
SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell He said he's not John Hough.
48:18
SPEAKER_05: But back in the yeah, you know, the people aren't carrying ID like they are now either.
48:21
SPEAKER_05: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
48:21
SPEAKER_00: He had a pretty good alibi to not be John Hough, but people were really stuck on this being him, right?
48:27
SPEAKER_05: Aaron Powell And probably getting frustrated by the fact that this has gone on for so long.
48:30
SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus Exactly.
48:31
SPEAKER_00: So even though he had, like I said, a very good alibi, half of the people who were there or witnesses said, no, that's absolutely not John Huff.
48:39
SPEAKER_00: John Huff has a facial scar, he looks very different from this man.
48:42
SPEAKER_00: You know, that that's not him.
48:43
SPEAKER_00: But then half of the people who were there said, no, that's him, that's John Huff.
48:46
SPEAKER_00: Like he got the right guy.
48:47
SPEAKER_00: And the the trial was very, very long.
48:50
SPEAKER_00: And it eventually ends in a hung jury.
48:51
SPEAKER_00: The jury says, We I don't think you can prove that that's the guy.
48:54
SPEAKER_00: So they schedule a second trial.
48:56
SPEAKER_00: But meanwhile, November of 1912, before the next trial, they arrest the actual John Huff in Atlanta.
49:02
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
49:02
SPEAKER_00: And so they bring him back, poor Wes Brewer, who's been in jail for over a year.
49:06
SPEAKER_00: They decide to let him go and they put John Huff on trial.
49:09
SPEAKER_00: And that wasn't until February of 1913.
49:12
SPEAKER_00: It took 60 hours of testimony from 74 witnesses.
49:16
SPEAKER_00: But the problem was that the first half of witnesses who had said Wes Brewer was John Huff didn't want to be liars.
49:22
SPEAKER_00: And so they would not testify that this was John Huff.
49:26
SPEAKER_00: And the other half testified it was, right?
49:28
SPEAKER_00: And so there was another mistrial, and he was tried again in March of 1912, and he was eventually acquitted.
49:36
SPEAKER_05: So even though they knew who did this, and they did eventually get him, they couldn't convict him because of so much malfeasance along the way.
49:46
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
49:47
SPEAKER_05: Unfortunate for the family of Officer McConnell, of course, and he had a family.
49:51
SPEAKER_00: He did.
49:51
SPEAKER_05: Correct?
49:52
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
49:53
SPEAKER_00: He had two children, Ruth and Edward McConnell Jr.
49:55
SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus.
49:56
SPEAKER_05: And he was married as well.
49:57
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
49:57
SPEAKER_05: So I mean you've got a wife and kids who, after two years and two trials, still don't see justice served.
50:04
SPEAKER_05: And unfortunately for Officer Edward McConnell with the Asheville Police Department, for only four years of service and only 33 years old, he pretty much dies in vain.
50:13
SPEAKER_05: That's just sad.
50:13
SPEAKER_00: Aaron Ross Powell There was a quote in the citizen, because this was quite I mean, it really was.
50:17
SPEAKER_00: It was like every one of these 70-hour trials was covered in great detail, and it was whose fault was this?
50:24
SPEAKER_00: But they did say a quote that the citizen would like to see the murder of Patrolman McConnell brought to the bar and punished for his crime, but it were far better that ten guilty men escaped than one innocent man should forfeit his life.
50:35
SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
50:36
SPEAKER_05: I can't disagree with that.
50:37
SPEAKER_05: You don't want anybody innocent to be convicted of anything, of course, but you just wish they could have figured it out before then.
50:43
SPEAKER_00: Aaron Ross Powell It's true.
50:44
SPEAKER_00: And I I will just put a small pitch in here, too, is after going through all of these newspaper articles leading up to 1911, it was very clear what a good officer Edward McConnell was.
50:55
SPEAKER_00: Like you you saw it in all the news reports.
50:57
SPEAKER_00: There was one where he literally pulled a drunk man off of the railroad tracks right before a train almost hit him, or when the Kinilworth End was on fire in 1909, he climbed up four balconies to rescue a man out of the burning building.
51:09
SPEAKER_00: Like he really was a very well-liked, a very well-known officer even in 1911.
51:14
SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
51:14
SPEAKER_05: So he might have had a very illustrious career had he been with us much longer.
51:17
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
51:17
SPEAKER_05: So Officer Edward McConnell, end of watch, July 7th, 1911.
51:23
SPEAKER_05: Once again, thank you again.
51:24
SPEAKER_05: Another History Minute with Hannah Silberman.
51:29
SPEAKER_05: That does it for another episode.
51:31
SPEAKER_05: Thank you to my guests, Sergeant Brad Bedto, Sergeant Hunter Wellbourne, Officer Dalton Green, and Hannah Silberman with the History Minute.
51:38
SPEAKER_05: And thank you for listening.
51:39
SPEAKER_05: If you got a question or topic suggestion, as always, you can call and leave a message at 828-250-8800.
51:46
SPEAKER_05: That is 828-250-8800.
51:49
SPEAKER_05: Or you can email me, APD Podcastfeedback at AshevilleNC.gov.
51:55
SPEAKER_05: Listen and subscribe now wherever you get your podcast.
51:58
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51:59
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52:00
SPEAKER_05: Tell your friends and family.
52:01
SPEAKER_05: I'm Rick Rice, and this is the APD Pod Squad.