New details emerge in a deadly West Asheville bar shooting Friday night.

RELATED |

Police say Anthony Roper was the victim, and that the alleged shooter is Colton Halford.

Halford's being treated at Mission Hospital after reportedly shooting himself in the head at the shooting scene.



News 13 spoke with someone who said he knows both the shooter and the victim.



"I still just don't want to believe it," said Chris McMahan, a Buncombe County youth football coach. Roper, he said, was a defensive coordinator for the youngest age division, the Termites, for ages 5 through 7.



Roper played football at A.C. Reynolds High School, and wanted his son to play, too.

"That was one of his big things," McMahan said. "He wanted to coach that division. He wanted to coach his son. He just wanted to help the kids and his son."

The son lost his father and his coach at the Just One More bar on Old Haywood Road.

Roper's sister says a friend of hers was at the bar the night of the shooting. The friend said Anthony Roper was there with a date.



The ex-fiance of that date showed up and shot Roper, and then went out into the parking lot and shot himself in the head.

"It's hard to believe from both sides," McMahan said.



He said not only does he know Roper, but he went to high school with alleged shooter Colton Halford.

"We hung out a little bit in high school," he said. He describes Halford as a happy-go-lucky person, much the same as Roper.

"He was a jokester. He always wanted to make people smile," McMahan said.

The suspected shooter is at Mission Hospital. At last check, he was in critical condition.



