The man accused of shooting and killing an employee at Wayne Community College in Goldsboro, North Carolina, on Monday was arrested early Tuesday in Florida, police say.
Kenneth Morgan Stancil III was arrested just after 1 a.m., after he was found sleeping on the beach in Daytona, Goldsboro police said, about 550 miles (885 kilometers) from Goldsboro.
Volusia County Beach Patrol had approached him for violating the city’s ordinance against sleeping on the beach.
He had a knife, police said. He was taken into custody without incident.
The shooting Monday took place on the third floor of a building on campus. The school was placed on lockdown.
“This is not a random situation. It is an isolated situation,” Maj. Tom Effler of the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office said.
The victim was Ron Lane, a longtime employee and the school’s print shop operator, officials said. Stancil, a former student at the college, once worked for Lane.
“This is indeed a sad day for Wayne Community College and this close family and community,” school President Kay Albertson said Monday.
“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.”
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 2013 show the two-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.