The day after a pair of college campuses was locked down, Hickory police investigators are working to learn why a man showed up at Catawba Valley Community College clutching a pistol and who he is.
“We want to help get things back to normal for the students who attend classes there and follow up with the sheriff’s office to see if there are any more leads for us to follow up on,” said Maj. Clyde Deal of the Hickory Police Department.
Officers found out that a man with a gun was on the school’s east campus when he was spotted by a college employee who immediately called the Catawba County Sheriff’s Deputy who serves as the school’s security and resource officer.
“She was genuinely upset,” Deal said.
The deputy radioed the sheriff’s office about the gunman. Additional deputies were dispatched to the campus along with Hickory police officers.
A second witness told reporters that he’d seen a person matching the gunman’s description run past his classroom twice.
Deal said he does not believe the gunman entered the building, but is investigating the witness’s account.
The CVCC’s campuses are patrolled by county deputies who are responsible for enforcing misdemeanor laws on the school grounds. Because the college is in the Hickory city limits, felonies are under the jurisdiction of the Hickory Police Department, said Capt. Joel Fish of the Catawba County Sheriff’s Office.
When the Hickory officers arrived on the scene, they took command of the operation.
A combined force of officers and deputies went room to room in the east campus building including the grounds and the roof to search for the gunman. City and county K-9 teams assisted in the search. They never found him.
The Hickory SWAT team did a second, more thorough search and escorted students out of the building.
This wasn’t the first time Hickory SWAT has roamed the college’s halls with weapons drawn – the officers have practiced their rapid deployment skills on the campus multiple times. They also conduct regular multi-agency drills with various law enforcement agencies and first responders.
This time it was for real. Troopers with the Highway Patrol controlled traffic around the campuses. The Hickory Fire Department was on the scene along with Catawba County EMS ambulance crews.
“We’re going to take the time to evaluate the operation and to figure out what we need to follow up on,” Deal said. “Today’s focus is to increase the presence on law enforcement on campus.”
About 5,000 students, faculty, staff and children were evacuated in an operation that lasted about five hours. Challenger High School students were bussed home and the children in CVCC’s day care program were evacuated.
“Probably the only situation that would have been more difficult to evacuate would be a hospital,” Deal said.
Anyone with information about the incident or the identity of the gunman is asked to call the Hickory Police Department at 328-5551.
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