Man in custody after hospital gun scare

Henderson, N.C. — Henderson police charged a man after a local hospital was put on emergency lockdown for more than an hour Thursday afternoon.

John Christopher Cole, 17, of 315 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Greensboro, was charged with possession of a weapon on school grounds, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and underage possession of alcohol.

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Greensboro man charged in hospital lockdown

Maria Parham Medical Center employees saw on a security monitor that a man had retrieved a firearm from an automobile shortly after 12:30 p.m. and was running toward the physicians' entrance to the hospital, police said.

Hospital officials notified police and placed the building on lockdown, allowing officers to conduct a floor-by-floor search.

The man wasn't found in the building, but investigators identified him as a Kerr Vance Academy student, police said.

Investigators went to the school and detained Cole, who turned over a BB gun to them, police said.

At one point, about a dozen police cars were parked outside the hospital, and two were blocking the ambulance entrance.

The lockdown ended shortly before 2 p.m., and police left the hospital.