The Wayne County Sheriff’s Office helicopter flies over the old Mount Olive High School building, now the University of Mount Olive’s Byrd Building Thursday afternoon. The Sheriff’s Office was providing mutual aid to Mount Olive Police in the search for a suspect in a stolen vehicle probe who jumped and ran from officers near the university and nearby Mount Olive Middle School. As a precaution, both were placed under lockdown even though there was no known weapon threat. The lockdowns had been lifted by 3 p.m. (Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)
The Wayne County Sheriff’s Office helicopter flies toward the Mount Olive Middle School Thursday afternoon while providing mutual aid to Mount Olive police who were searching for a suspect in a stolen car probe who jumped and ran from them near the school and the University of Mount Olive campus, both of which were placed under lockdown. There was no known weapons threat, police said. The lockdowns were out of an abundance of caution since the suspect fled from officers. (Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)
Mount Olive Middle School and the University of Mount Olive were on lockdown for just under three hours Thursday afternoon after a suspect in a stolen vehicle case jumped from the vehicle and ran from town police around noon.
The lockdowns had been lifted by 3 p.m.
There did not appear to be any threat from a weapon, Mount Olive Police Chief Jason Hughes said.
“He (the suspect) ran through the middle school (property) and through the university (property) and we are pretty sure he got away through the university,” Hughes told the the Tribune. “As a precaution, being that we had somebody running from law enforcement in the area, we put a lockdown on the middle school and university.”
Hughes said he was not on the track with the K-9 unit searching for the suspect and as such could not provide specifics on a location.
“I just know that he got close enough to the middle school and close enough to the university that I felt we needed to put it on lockdown,” the police chief reiterated. “There was no threat of a weapon or anything like that, but when you have somebody running from law enforcement, it was just best to go ahead and put the two institutions on lockdown.”
The car was stolen locally, Hughes added.
The Wayne County Sheriff’s Office helicopter provided mutual aid by conducting an aerial search over both campuses and across other areas of town.
At 2:31 p.m. the police notified UMO officials that the campus lockdown could be lifted.
When the campus went on lockdown, it utilized its Omni Alert system to notify all faculty, staff, and students. The Omni Alert System utilizes phone, text, email, social media, and website to disseminate timely emergency notifications.
During that time, the campus worked with the Mount Olive police and the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office to monitor for updates and any further recommended actions. As an additional measure of safety, police went through all campus facilities to ensure no further action was needed on campus.
The middle school has security provided by school resource officers who are Wayne County Sheriff’s deputies.
Based on the information received, the incident and the individual were non-UMO related. However, the suspect, while avoiding apprehension, fled on foot near the UMO campus and the lockdown was mandated out of an abundance of caution.
UMO officials said they appreciate the timely notification by local law enforcement, as well as the quick response by the UMO faculty, staff, and students to adhere to the lockdown.
“At UMO, we appreciated the good working relationship that we have with local law enforcement,” said Dr. Dan Sullivan, senior vice president for student affairs. “Those relationships help maintain a safe campus atmosphere.”
The suspect had not been apprehended as of 3 p.m.
The story will be updated as more information becomes available.
