The alleged July 26 shooting of cyclist Alan Simons by Asheville firefighter Charles Alexander Diez has the local cycling community “outraged,” according to one leader. Diez is out on bond, facing charges of attempted first degree murder.
Around mid-day on July 26, according to police, Diez followed Simons, who was riding along Tunnel Road with his wife and 3-year-old child, after confronting Simons angrily about having his child in a bike seat behind him. Parked in the travel lane, Diez allegedly drew a .38-caliber handgun and, the incident report reads, “fired one round toward the victim’s head, striking his helmet.”
The shot tore through the lining of Simons' helmet, coming less than an inch from hitting him in the left side of his head.
Witnesses reported Diez’s license tag number and, about 25 minutes later, Buncombe sheriff’s deputies later arrested Diez at his Swannanoa home.
Diez, who has been employed at the Asheville Fire Department since 1992, has been placed on paid leave, according to interim Chief Scott Burnette.
“That’s according to the city’s guidelines for an incident like this,” Burnette told Xpress, declining to comment further on the matter. “We’re letting the police handle this.”
Diez’s bond was originally set at $500,000. But he posted bond and was released Tuesday after a judge reduced it to $200,000. He has no prior criminal record and, according to police, sober at the time of the incident.
Simons has not yet responded to requests for comment.
Since the incident, Asheville on Bikes founder Mike Sule said, “my e-mail has been flooded. There’s a general sense of anger over this. We’re simply outraged.” “To just shoot a cyclist in the head like that; that’s beyond road rage, I think there’s clearly some mental illness involved,” Sule told Xpress. “The thing that really worries me is that there’s this belief that somehow cyclists shouldn’t be on the road.”
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