ASHEVILLE - While police are using surveillance camera footage to investigate and attempt to identify people in an alleged assault June 29 at West Asheville Library, city leaders are decrying violence in the community amid mounting local tensions over the Israel-Hamas war.
Asheville Police Department officers responded to reports of a fight in progress around 2:57 p.m. June 29 at the library on Haywood Road, according to an APD news release. The fight broke out in one of the library’s public meeting rooms during a seminar called “Strategic Lessons from the Palestinian Resistance,” which was part of the fifth annual Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair.
Between 80 and 100 people were in attendance, according to police.
Tensions arose over an attendee, Monica Buckley, 48, livestreaming the speech. She attended the event with two other alleged victims of the ensuing assault, David Moritz, 54, and Bob Campbell, 79. All three reside in the Asheville area.
Organizers of the anarchist bookfair claim the three went to the event to “provoke conflict” and “sell a false narrative” that the bookfair is an antisemitic event, according to a July 3 news release. The alleged victims, two of whom are Jewish, told the Citizen Times they attended the event to learn about the seminar and had no intention of antagonizing the group.
What does video show?
In a video circulating on social media, an attendee says, "I don't know if everyone is cool with it, but there's livestreaming happening in this room right now."
"They're Zionists," someone said. "We've been trying to figure out how to deal with them."
Buckley told the Citizen Times July 3 that someone had asked her to stop recording earlier in the meeting, but she had said, "No, thank you," and started livestreaming to Facebook.
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After some back and forth between the crowd and the speaker while the group discussed what to do, Moritz said, "What are you guys afraid of? I thought you wanted your message sent out."
Around the same time, the speaker said, "end the Zionist occupation in here."
A short while later, the group is seen in the livestream gathering in front of the three alleged victims sitting along a side wall. Two men start clapping near Campbell's face and the crowd chants, "Free Palestine."
"From Hamas," Campbell yells back.
At that moment, a woman grabbed Buckley's phone, she said, and the video goes dark. Loud scuffling is heard over the recording's audio, as well as Moritz saying, “Don’t touch me” and someone saying to Campbell: “We don’t give a ... about how old you are."
Buckley said she ran and jumped on the woman who took her phone, but three or four people started hitting her while others were holding her down.
"They were punching me in the wrist and the hands; They were stomping on my ankles," Buckley said, adding that it felt like she was being strangled at one point.
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Campbell said he was trying to reach Buckley when someone grabbed him from behind, "slammed" him "down on the floor," and later dragged him to a different part of the library.
Back on the video, someone says, “this is someone’s phone I’m just going to chuck it against the wall," before the recording swirls as phone falls into the grass outside.
During the altercation, a librarian called 911, according to a news release from Buncombe County. Police told Buckley they also received 911 calls from people watching the livestream, she said.
Buckley said her phone was later found in the yard behind the library and Campbell's was found in a trash bin.
Buckley, Moritz and Campbell said they have numerous bruises and abrasions from the incident. EMS attended to their injuries at the library, and no one was transferred to the hospital, according to police.
In a July 3 news release, the bookfair organizer called the incident a "planned disruption by individuals with extreme, genocidal beliefs who have publicly called for the suppression of solidarity with Palestinians."
Mayor Esther Manheimer, who is Jewish, issued the following statement about the incident:
“The members of the Asheville community deserve the right to enter any community spaces with a feeling of security. We will not tolerate violence, either against or carried out in our community. Asheville is a city that has thrived and honored the diversity of all its residents. We will continue to do so and not be cowed by individuals resorting to violence.”
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One person, Taylor Danielle Zarkin, 35, of Alexander, was charged with two counts of resisting a public officer for allegedly obstructing police investigations after the initial incident, Rice said.
Zarkin’s arrest report said she is an employee of Asheville Public Library, which she told officers when questioned, according to Rice. The county denied Zarkin has ever been an employee with Buncombe County in a news release.
APD is now using surveillance footage from the interior of the library to identify nine “persons of interest” as of July 3, according to Rice.
“We at the APD remain steadfast in our commitment to reducing all acts of violence in our community, particularly those targeting vulnerable groups like our Jewish Community,” Chief Mike Lamb said in a news release, adding that police are working the District Attorney's office.
The Citizen Times reached out to the organizers of ACAB but did not receive a response before press time.
Anyone with information regarding the incident or identification of the offenders can contact APD at 828-252-1110. Anonymous tips can be submitted using the TIP2APD smartphone application (search “Asheville PD” in the app store) or by texting TIP2APD to 847411.
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Ryley Ober is the Public Safety Reporter for Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at rober@gannett.com and follow her on Twitter @ryleyober
