UPDATE: Students to report to class as usual, after search for gunman locks down UNCW

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Classes are going on as scheduled at UNC Wilmington after the campus was locked down overnight. The security measure was put in place around midnight after a man reportedly robbed at least one person at gunpoint in the parking lot of a Hardee’s on South College Road and then ran off through campus.

The university says extra security is on campus and police continue to investigate.

“Safety is our priority,” UNCW Police Chief David Donaldson said. “If you see it, report it.”

Donaldson says within four minutes of receiving the report, his department set out phone, text and e-mail alerts to students telling them to shelter in place while police searched for the suspect. That alert was lifted at 5 a.m. The suspect, described as a 5’11” light-skinned black male weighing about 230 lbs. wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and a red bandana, is still on the run.

Donaldson says there was never a confirmed sighting of the man on campus, but he says Wilmington Police used a K9 to track follow a track from Hardee’s along a woodline. He says that track stopped near the bus stop on Randall Drive, where it is possible, the chief says, the suspect may have left in a car.

Students are free to move about the campus but should remain alert and report any suspicious activity to police. Classes start at normal hours today. For further updates, monitor cell phone, the UNCW homepage, local media, www.uncw.edu/alert and the Emergency Information Hotline at (910) 962-3991.