A gunman walked into a building on the campus of Wayne Community College in Goldsboro, North Carolina, on Monday and shot the school’s print shop operator, killing him, authorities said.
The school was placed on lockdown, and the gunman remains at large. But all buildings have been cleared, Maj. Tom Effler of the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office said.
“This is not a random situation. It is an isolated situation,” he said.
The victim, Ron Lane, was a longtime employee. He and other employees knew the man thought to be the shooter, authorities said.
Using the term “person of interest,” Effler said the man thought to have carried out the killing is Kenneth Stancil, a former student who did not graduate.
Surveillance cameras captured images of the man thought to be the shooter but did not capture the shooting itself, Effler said.
The description given for Stancil matches the description the Sheriff’s Office had previously given, using the word “suspect” — a bald white male, 5-foot-11, with a tattoo over his left eye and a goatee. He is thought to be wearing a blue jacket and light-colored pants.
“This is indeed a sad day for Wayne Community College and this close family and community,” school President Kay Albertson said.
“Our hearts are heavy at the loss of an employee — a valued employee — and we will soon be reaching out to the family.”
She praised the “rapid response from the city, the county, the state and the federal first responders,” who are “working diligently to apprehend the suspect.”
The shooting took place on the third floor of a campus building. Despite earlier reports, the victim was not killed inside the library, Albertson said.
While authorities were clearing out rooms, they deployed tear gas into a restroom someone was in, Effler said. The person inside turned out not to be the suspect.
Figures from fall of 2013 show the 2-year school with a student population of 3,837, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, with slightly more than half the students part-time.
Crime statistics from the center’s website show no killings, assaults, robberies or motor vehicle thefts between 2011 and 2013. There were three arrests for illegal weapons possession in 2012 and three in 2013.