Tuesday’s chaotic scene at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte was a familiar one.
The school was placed on lockdown for hours as police swept through buildings after reports of an active shooter on campus.
When it was over, a gunman had killed two people and wounded four others.
“A student should not have to fear for his or her life when they are on our campuses,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper lamented to reporters.
Nevertheless, this terrifying situation has played out all too often in the past few years at North Carolina schools with shootings and threats.
In October 2015, a student was injured in a shooting at North Carolina Central University, CNN affiliate WTVD reported. The campus was placed on lockdown, and officials said the incident was triggered by an argument and appeared to be isolated, WTVD reported.
Nearly a month later, one student was fatally shot and another person was injured in a shooting on the Winston-Salem State University campus. The victim, Anthony White Jr., was 19 and had been studying information technology, CNN affiliate WRAL reported.
“Part of what I do, part of my responsibility is to keep you safe,” Chancellor Elwood L. Robinson has said. “In some ways, I felt like I failed. It was the most difficult moment that I’ve experienced in a long, long time.”
A former 21-year-old student was charged in White’s killing, CNN affiliate WXII reported.
That same year, a gunman walked into a building on the campus of Wayne Community College in Goldsboro and killed the school’s print shop operator.
The operator was identified as longtime employee Ron Lane. Authorities said the suspected gunman was a 20-year-old former student who had worked for Lane at one time.
In January 2018, Winston-Salem State student Najee Baker was shot on Wake Forest University’s campus after an altercation at a party hosted by the local chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Inc.
Police later arrested 21-year-old Jakier Shanique Austin and charged him with murder, possession of a gun on educational property and carrying a concealed weapon, according to a statement.
“To see the life of a promising young man cut short in an act of unnecessary and senseless violence is confusing, infuriating and saddening to us all,” Wake Forest President Nathan O. Hatch and Robinson said in a joint statement. “Let us use the life and death of Najee Baker to become better people, better institutions and a better community.”
In March 2018, a UNC student on the Charlotte campus was arrested after threatening violence, according to CNN affiliate WSOC.
The student told a university doctor he could not wait to buy a gun and shoot the university up and that he liked to watch people die, WSOC reported.
When he was released from jail, officials said they found the student lurking around other campuses and an elementary school parking lot.
Threats near campus
On January 31, UNC Charlotte police responded to a report of shots fired. One person – not affiliated with the university – was injured and transported to the hospital.
And in May 2015, three students were shot to death at an apartment near the UNC Chapel Hill campus after an “ongoing neighbor dispute over parking,” police said at the time.
All three victims – a newlywed couple and the bride’s younger sister – were Muslim.
That same year, the university had been placed on lockdown after police reported an armed and dangerous person on or near campus, CNN affiliate WTVR said.
CNN’s Dave Alsup and Dianne Gallagher contributed to this report.
