‘I am not OK’: Students, chancellor plea for police, safety around NC Central University

N.C. Central University community members implored Durham leaders to do more to protect the campus from gun violence, like a recent shooting that sent a bullet through a student’s window.

“Doing nothing at all is not an option,” Chancellor Johnson Akinleye said at a City Council meeting, Thursday.

Students say they are afraid to walk around campus at night and fear for their safety after shooting incidents nearby, The News & Observer has reported.

Akinleye asked the city to boost police presence, have Durham and campus police share patrolling areas, and try a free, six-month trial of Shotspotter, a gunshot-detection service that most council members rejected in September.

The chancellor also asked for speed bumps on the streets around campus and for Michael Page, NCCU’s director of external affairs, to be appointed to Durham’s Community Safety and Wellness Task Force.

The first student to speak to the mayor and council members was Kenneccia Woolard, a junior studying social work.

Woolard was in her dorm room when a bullet hit her window Sept. 19. She was injured from shattered glass, The N&O reported.

“I am not OK. I am facing this trauma every day,” Woolard said. “I believe we need an action plan immediately.”

Woolard doesn’t want to see her campus continue to be a “battleground” for robbers and shooters.

“I was just inches away of losing my life, and I do not want this to happen to any other fellow eagles on this campus,” she said, her voice rising.

Kevin Holloway, chairman of the NCCU Board of Trustees, said the city needs to intervene.

“We are teetering on disaster,” Holloway said.

The school’s student body president also spoke, urging council members to consider ShotSpotter.

“Coupled with the stress college students often experience, we must work together to ensure our students, faculty and staff are safe at their home away from home,” said Keshaun Coleman.

Elderly residents feel neglected

Akinleye said the violence is “coming from the streets” onto the campus. Durham experts on gang activity agree.

“I believe the problem is with the surrounding neighborhoods,” wrote Jim Stuit, Durham’s gang reduction strategy manager in an email to The N&O.

McDougald Terrace is a short walk from NCCU. The public housing complex has seen an “elevated level of gun violence” this year, Stuit wrote.

Beverly Evans, who lives in nearby College Heights, told the council she and her elderly neighbors feel their safety is being “neglected.”

College Heights is a nationally registered, historic African-American neighborhood. Evans said its oldest residents, who are mostly in their 90s, feel frightened.

“I just can’t stand to hear them saying that they have to get down on the floor when they hear gunshots because they are so afraid of being hit by something coming through a window,” Evans said.

NCCU, like all schools within the UNC system, must collect and publish crime statistics under the Clery Act. The act also requires campus police to adopt security measures as a response, but only within the college’s boundaries.

Violent crimes are up 46.05% this year in the district encompassing NCCU, McDougald Terrace, and the majority of southeast Durham, according to Durham Police Department data.

Shootings are up across Durham, too, with 226 people shot as of Sept. 19, compared to 132 people at the same time last year. Homicides are down, with 23 this year compared to 30 last year, The N&O has reported.

Many shootings in the city have “the DNA of gang activity,” Stuit told The N&O.

The Durham Police Department has increased patrols around the campus and the surrounding area, said spokesperson Kammie Michael.

City Council members respond

Council members DeDreana Freeman and Mark-Anthony Middleton said they would support the chancellor’s recommendations.

“Keep advocating, keep calling out, keep getting in our faces, keep sending us emails just like every other community does,” Middleton said.

Other council members said they share the school’s concern and will prioritize it in future discussions.

“I’m very concerned about what has been happening over the last six months to a year, where gun violence has spread across our city,” said council member Javiera Caballero. “And it is causing tragedy in many, many communities.”

Mayor Pro Tem Jillian Johnson said she would look into why campus police can’t patrol outside the school’s boundaries.

Although NCCU’s chancellor, two council members, and others expressed support for ShotSpotter, most council members have opposed bringing the system to Durham.

At a Sept. 10 meeting, Johnson said she is “not interested in putting into place any technology that’s going to increase the amount of policing” in Durham, The N&O reported.

During the same discussion, Caballero had also rejected using the gunshot-detection system on the grounds that it “isn’t sustainable in the long term” and would require hiring more officers.

Two more council members, Pierce Freelon and Charlie Reece, had also opposed using ShotSpotter at the Sept. 10 meeting.

This story was originally published October 8, 2020 at 3:27 PM.