Church Street shooting incident results in charges against local woman

The woman who appeared at a June 2020 Front Royal Town Council meeting with props to publicly criticize then-Mayor Eugene Tewalt and then Town Councilman Chris Holloway’s 2020 mayoral campaign opponent and Royal Examiner Publisher Mike McCool for participating in or filming a ribbon-cutting at the Virginia Beer Museum to celebrate reopening from eased COVID pandemic restrictions the day before a bikini motorcycle wash event, was arrested Monday, March 29 on firearms charges.|

Above, Alisa Carson makes a case against a Va. Beer Museum bikini ‘bike’ washing event, as well as then-Mayor Tewalt’s participation in and Mike McCool’s media coverage of the museum’s pandemic-related business reopening ribbon cutting. It was later pointed out the two events occurred on separate days. Below, Carson’s March 29 booking photo at RSW Jail. Royal Examiner File Photos – Mug shot RSW Jail website

Alisa Nichole Carson, 41, is charged with “reckless handling of a firearm” and “unlawful discharge of a firearm, missile in, at occupied building”. She was booked into RSW Regional Jail at 11:58 p.m. Monday night and released the following morning at 8:38 a.m. on a $5,000 unsecured bond. She has a hearing date in Warren County General District Court scheduled for May 4, on the 10 a.m. docket.

A check at the General District Court Clerk’s Office offered no other detail on the circumstance or address at which the incident occurred, other than that the Front Royal Police was the arresting agency. A subsequent check with FRPD provided an address of 17 Church Street as the site of the incident, which may have evolved from a domestic situation.

Prior to her June 2020 Public Comments appearance before the town council, Carson had been seen at Warren County Republican Committee meetings, occasionally seated next to now Mayor Holloway. Friday, committee officials verified her past membership and a district committee chairmanship they believed is still active.

Alisa Carson and Chris Holloway at a 2019 Warren County Republican Committee Meeting.

Her June 2020 public criticism of the moral values of Beer Museum proprietor David Downes for hosting a ‘Bikini Bike Wash’ and sideswipes at Tewalt and McCool for their presence at the Virginia Beer Museum ribbon cutting was interpreted by some observers as, at least in part, a not-too-subtle promotion of then-Councilman Holloway’s Republican Committee-endorsed campaign for mayor.