A three hour standoff ended peacefully in Asheville Tuesday evening.
Asheville Police spokesperson Melissa Williams said that police negotiated with Kenneth Eldimore Allison, of Hilton Head Plantation, South Carolina, after an incident early Monday morning prompted them to be on the lookout for Allison.
Around 9:30 Tuesday, Williams says that Asheville Police officers took a report after an incident Monday at a Remax Realty office on College Street caused some concern for the business owner.
According to the report, the business owner said that Allison had come into the business and said he wanted to buy some property. The owner said that Allison was acting strangely while speaking with an agent and after being shown some properties, Allison left the business and went out to the business' parking lot, where he stayed for nearly an hour cleaning out the trunk of his car.
Williams says that the owner became suspicious of Allison and did a "Google" search and learned that he had previously been involved in a standoff with law enforcement officers on August 18 in the Hilton Head-Beaufort County area. The owner of the real estate business said they had become concerned that Allison would return to the business and called Asheville Police to inform them of the encounter with him.
Just before 4:30 Tuesday afternoon, an Asheville Police Department officer noticed Allison's vehicle on Haywood Street and initiated a traffic stop to check on Allison's welfare. According to police, Allison did not stop and drove toward the Grove Arcade area of the city.
After barricading himself inside his car, Allison surrendered peacefully just after 7 pm Tuesday night and he was taken into custody. Williams says that Asheville Police obtained commitment paper on Allison and he was taken to Mission Hospital for treatment and assessment.
Roads in downtown Asheville were closed for a couple of hours while police attempted to get Allison out of his car.
To read more about the story, click here to read the Asheville Citizen-Times story: http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20100831/NEWS01/100831049
To watch the arrest video, click here for the Asheville Citizen-Times story: http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20100831/NEWS01/100831051
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