On April 18, 2024, at about 3:13 p.m., officers responded to a shooting in the 160 block of Tunnel Road near the Mountaineer Inn in Asheville. Thirty-three-year-old Oji Trevon Mitchell of Columbia, South Carolina, was found in a strip mall parking lot with a gunshot wound to the chest and was taken to Mission Hospital, where he later died. Witnesses reported multiple gunshots.

Investigators say Mitchell and 24-year-old Kenneth Maurice West Jr. of Rock Hill, South Carolina, were acquainted and that the shooting followed an armed robbery. Authorities allege West stole a multi-colored Gucci bag containing $3,751 in cash and identity documents valued at $3,900, and was found with a Glock 27, .40-caliber handgun. West was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and armed robbery and booked without bond. The case is under investigation; Mitchell’s family held a memorial service in Columbia.

If anyone has information about what happened on Tunnel Road that afternoon, please come forward.