Cops: N.C. college shooting was possible hate crime
GOLDSBORO, N.C. -- Investigators are looking into the possibility that the Monday shooting death of a long-time employee at a North Carolina community college was a hate crime, officials said Tuesday, reports CBS affiliate WRAL.
The suspect, former Wayne County Community College student Kenneth Morgan Stancil III, 20, was arrested at about 1:20 a.m. Tuesday in Daytona Beach, Fla. after a manhunt. Deputies from the Volusia County Beach Patrol approached him for violating an ordinance that prohibits sleeping on the beach.
Investigators said Stancil carried a long gun into the Wayne Learning Center at the college in Goldsboro, about 50 miles southeast of Raleigh, shortly before 8 a.m. Monday. He allegedly went to the third-floor print shop and fired a single shot, killing shop director Ron Lane, 44.
College officials said Stancil was a previous work-study student who reported to Lane. He was dismissed from the federally funded program at the beginning of March because of too many absences, college president Kay Albertson told WRAL.
Investigators have not discussed a motive in the shooting and are looking into the possibility that it was a hate crime, reports the station. They would not elaborate.
"I can say with confidence that Mr. Stancil had a calculated plan, and he carried out that plan," Goldsboro police Sgt. Jeremy Sutton said during a Tuesday morning news conference.
After the shooting, officers flooded the campus and locked down buildings as they conducted a room-by-room search. Officers cleared all the buildings at the school, including one that was cleared by tear gas when they mistakenly thought they had the gunman isolated.
The station reports Stancil fled on a motorcycle, which a state trooper found abandoned in the median of Interstate 95 South in Lumberton, about 90 miles southwest of Goldsboro, later that morning.
"When we found the motorcycle on I-95 South, we automatically knew we were headed south," Sutton said.
It's unclear how Stancil traveled from North Carolina to Florida, but authorities reportedly said help from the media, the public and numerous law enforcement agencies led to his capture.
The station reports the gun used in the slaying hasn't been recovered. Investigators are reportedly analyzing evidence seized from Stancil's Wayne County home.
Classes at the college resumed Tuesday, and extra security was present on campus, WRAL reported. Before classes, Albertson gathered with staff to create a memorial to Lane at the center of campus.
"We are relieved at the apprehension of Mr. Stancil. The college is operating today. It's a day of healing," college spokeswoman Tara Humphries said, the station reported. "We will be paying personal tributes to Ron Lane today, and later in the week we will plan a celebration of his life."
Stancil is charged with an open count of murder. He was being held without bond in the Volusia County Jail early Tuesday. Authorities in Wayne County were working to have him extradited back to North Carolina.