Asheville Pastor Urges Gang Prevention After City Ignored Decade-Long Program Push

An Asheville clergyman with a background in gang activity is accusing local officials of deliberately downplaying violence in the North Carolina tourist destination by refusing to acknowledge its gang-related nature. Dr. Ronald Gates, senior pastor at Greater Works Church of God in Christ and a Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office chaplain, has spent 10 years pushing city and county leaders to implement a youth intervention program he believes could prevent younger residents from entering criminal networks.

Gates first presented his proposal to Asheville officials in 2016, seeking funding for Gang Free, a Los Angeles-based curriculum designed for fourth through sixth graders. The program teaches children about gang recruitment tactics, symbolism and the legal consequences of involvement while providing mentorship, educational support and entrepreneurship opportunities through partnerships with local law enforcement and business owners.

Recent retaliatory shootings in Asheville have left two people dead and seven wounded, prompting renewed discussion about the city’s violence problem. However, city officials have characterized the incidents as retaliation between friend groups rather than gang activity—a characterization Gates disputes as an attempt to minimize the underlying criminal structure driving the violence.

Gates, who grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan with loose ties to the Vice Lords gang before his father, brother and sports involvement redirected his path, argues that prevention must occur before youth become entrenched in street life. He contends that young people without consistent father figures or mentors often turn to older gang members for guidance and protection, creating opportunities for manipulation into dangerous criminal acts.

State data substantiates the escalating violence problem. Asheville recorded 42 percent more violent crimes in 2024 compared to 2016, driven primarily by aggravated assaults that nearly doubled from 335 to 558 incidents. Though violent crime peaked in 2022 and declined for two consecutive years, 2024 levels remained elevated relative to the 2016 baseline.

Gates recalled being told in 2016 that Asheville lacked sufficient gang activity to justify the program, a prediction he warned would prove wrong. “Give it two years,” he told officials at the time—a timeframe that proved prescient as the violence problem intensified over the following years.

The pastor emphasized that the city should not wait for formal gang classifications before implementing prevention initiatives when young people are caught in cycles of violence and retaliation. He stressed that practical support—including legitimate income opportunities, mentorship and business exposure—must be available long before shootings, arrests or deaths occur.