‘In the middle of danger’: Durham shootings concern students at NC Central University

Morgan Kesler saw police cars lined up on Fayetteville Street in front of N.C. Central University, when she pulled up in her car after a trip to grab food.

A police officer told her to go inside immediately, she said. A stray bullet had hit a window at Benjamin Ruffin Residence Hall after gunshots broke out earlier that night.

Kesler, a senior studying political science, is used to hearing shots on the block but said there seem to be more of them this year.

“The recent spike in crime has been very surprising,” she said. “I’ve lived on campus all four years. So this is the first time I can say I’ve honestly felt like we were in the middle of danger.”

After recent incidents in and around campus, Chancellor Johnson Akinleye, Kevin Holloway, chairman of the Board of Trustees, and students will speak to the City Council on Thursday about safety concerns at the historically black university. The meeting begins at 1 p.m.

Mayor Steve Schewel said he shares their concerns.

“We have to figure out ways that we can help them keep the campus safe,” he said Tuesday.

This isn’t the first time the university has approached the city about policing.

In 2014, NCCU trustees expressed support for Durham building its new police headquarters on Fayetteville Street.

The city instead chose to erect the headquarters downtown on Main Street.

Campus alerts tell students to take precautions

The university’s police department notifies students about crime and emergencies in emails though the Rave Mobility System.

Alerts include tips on how students can protect themselves. They tell students to walk in groups of four or more and avoid working alone late at night, according to alerts obtained by The News & Observer.

The emails also tell students to stay away from “alleys, shrubbery, dark shadows near buildings” and to call the police when people are following them.

Breann Wyman, a junior studying nursing, said she wants more security cameras on campus.

She has never been targeted, she said, but it scared her when she heard about a student who was robbed at gunpoint on campus.

On Sept. 17, the school notified students about an armed robbery in a dorm, according to alerts obtained by The N&O. The suspect “brandished a handgun” and took the victim’s wallet, an alert stated.

The school notified students the next day that police had arrested a suspect.

Wyman said she is used to the alerts and accepts crime as a reality of the neighborhood surrounding NCCU, she said.

“I’m Black too,” she said. “I feel like, I’m in a Black neighborhood, and some people aren’t as fortunate to live in a better neighborhood. So they feel like, ‘If I got to rob somebody, then I’m going to rob somebody.’”

“My standpoint is, I’m not going to be the one you’re going to rob because I’m going to be in my room at 12 o’clock at night,” she added.

Kesler said her car was broken into two years ago, and a suspicious man, who she believed was not a student, followed her onto campus last year.

She said she doesn’t want the school and city to ignore the crime just because NCCU is a historically black university.

“The common consensus is, you go to HBCUs, HBCUs are located in low-income communities, so things like this are going to happen” she said. “That doesn’t make it OK.”

Police report incidents around campus

From Oct. 5, 2019, to Oct. 5, 2020, NCCU police responded to at least 22 reported assaults, according to the school’s daily incident log.

The reports include one assault by pointing a gun, one assault with a deadly weapon and one assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury.

There have also been four reports of felony larceny, two reports of robbery with a deadly weapon and one report of burglary. There were two reports of possession of a weapon on school property.

This map, created using data from the Durham Police Department, shows shooting incidents reported to police near campus between October 2018 and August 2020. These incidents include shootings that caused property damage, non-fatal shootings that caused injuries, and homicides.

Shootings are up this year in Durham, with 226 people shot as of Sept. 19, compared to 132 people at the same time last year, according to the Durham Police Department. Homicides are down, with 23 this year compared to 30 last year at this time.

NCCU increased campus police patrols after the stay-bullet incident Sept. 21, Associate Vice Chancellor of Communications Ayana Hernandez wrote in an email. The university declined to make the chancellor available for an interview Tuesday.

Damon Williams, chief of university police, spoke at a virtual town hall Sept. 28. He told students to not use headphones while walking on campus, to not prop open doors to campus buildings for others, and to lock all residence hall doors, according to the Campus Echo, the school newspaper.

Safety on an open campus

Kesler said NCCU has an open campus and non-students can walk through its outdoor sections.

She would carry self-defense weapons like a taser or pepper spray if the school allowed it, she said.

The Rev. Dr. Johnathan Augustine, a pastor at nearby St. Joseph AME Church, said the city should fund more patrols around campus.

“We want to make sure the area around North Carolina Central is safe,” Augustine said. “Safety there attracts more students. The campus can thrive, and it has a direct correlation with economic benefit for the area.”

His church has a close friendship with the school, he added, and it concerns him when students tell him about crime.

“Every student should have an opportunity to go to college in a place that is safe,” he said.

Staff writer Virginia Bridges contributed to this story.

This story was originally published October 7, 2020 at 5:50 AM.