GOLDSBORO, N.C. — The man wanted in the shooting death of the print shop director at a community college in North Carolina was arrested in Florida early Tuesday, Goldsboro police said.
Kenneth Morgan Stancil III was arrested shortly before 1:30 a.m. when he was spotted sleeping on the beach in Daytona Beach, Florida, Goldsboro police Capt. Dwayne Dean said.
Stancil, who had a knife with him, was arrested without incident when Volusia County beach patrol officers found the suspect sleeping on the beach, a violation of a local ordinance, Dean said.
Stancil is accused of shooting and killing Ron Lane in the print shop at Wayne County Community College on Monday morning. Lane had supervised Stancil, a former student, under a work-study program, officials said.
Goldsboro police and the Wayne County district attorney’s office will work to have Stancil extradited to North Carolina to face charges, Dean said.
Meanwhile, students planned to return to class at the college Tuesday.
Stancil was identified as a former student at the school who used to work for Lane. Stancil faces an open count of murder, Wayne County Sheriff Larry Pierce said Monday.
The school was placed on lockdown after the shooting around 8 a.m. Monday.
First-year student Joniece Simmons, 19, said she was sitting on a bench outside the learning center when two officers with rifles and a third with a drawn handgun ran toward the building, shouting for students to take cover in a safe place. She and others ran inside to the cafeteria and locked the door.
Though they were urged to stay silent, some students still wanted to talk. “I was like ‘hush, it’s serious.’ I was crying,” Simmons said.
Nearby, the private Wayne County Day School — with about 300 students in prekindergarten through 12th grade — also was on lockdown, said Melissa Watkins, a volunteer parent receptionist at the school.
“We saw 10 to 11 cruisers go by all at once,” she said. “We knew something was going on; we just didn’t know what or where.”
A next-door neighbor on the road lined with brick ranch homes, Barbara Williams, said Stancil’s grandparents lived on the other side of the mobile home, where they operated an assisted living home. A sign in the front yard said “Stancil Family Care Home.” An elderly man with a cane who came to the front door declined comment to an Associated Press reporter.
Williams said Stancil once helped her late husband when he fell out of his bed.
“He came over here and picked him right up and put him back on the bed,” Williams said. “I’ve never had no problems with those kids. … It just surprises me.”