Name: NCCU chancellor maintains school is a safe environment for students after shootings
Uploaded: 2021-09-20T15:58:41-0400
Duration: 1448565
Description: "I want to assure everyone that the NCCU community and the public at large that our campus is safe and remains a safe and healthy environment," said Chancellor Dr. Johnson O. Akinleye.

We’re also following the flight delays and tomorrow’s impacts after a plane crash at RDU. Plus, Only on WRAL, why a high school student is not allowed to participate in one of the most important events of his life.. and how he and his family are fighting for him to graduate. Watch WRAL-TV at 11 p.m., and search for these and other stories on WRAL.com.

On WRAL at 11: Cooler weather tomorrow morning but we’re about to warm up. When and where temperatures top 90 degrees

The "Dueling Dinosaurs" exhibit opening this weekend at Raleigh's North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences will feature what's believed to be the most complete T. rex skeleton ever discovered.

'Dueling Dinosaurs:' One-of-a-kind dig, laboratory access at Raleigh science museum

DinoLab at North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences

Athens Drive Magnet High School and Conn Magnet Elementary School won national awards Saturday at the Magnet Schools of America's annual conference.

Top two magnet schools in the US are in Wake County

Athens Drive High School

"I want to assure everyone that the NCCU community and the public at large that our campus is safe and remains a safe and healthy environment," said Chancellor Dr. Johnson O. Akinleye.

So good afternoon, thank you for coming. My name is Diana Hernandez and I served as Associate Vice Chancellor for Communications and marketing with north Carolina Central University. Before we get started with today's news conference, I do want to acknowledge three guests that we have here. MS tina rough with Durham Technical Community College, Chair of the Durham County Board of Commissioners Brenda Howerton and the honourable Elaine o neill. Yeah, the press conference will proceed in the following order. First dr johnson oh a thin layer. Chancellor of north Carolina Central University. He will be followed by Chief Damon Williams who is Chief of Police and director of public safety here at north Carolina Central University. Lieutenant Geneva's minor will come up from Durham Police Department. He will be followed by major walter Tate who is also with Durham Police Department Chancellor. I can layer will wrap up the event and we will have a few questions. One addition Mr Derek Stanfield will also address this news conference and he serves as the Student Government Association President. Thank you. Can you hear me? Mhm Good afternoon. It is my pleasure to have you here this afternoon. We wanna thank you for coming on such a very short notice. I'll be very, very important uh press conference. North Carolina Central University and the entire community here were impacted by a tragedy that occurred On Saturday September 18 2021 on the surface parking lot between the pre street and Lawson avenue. I extend Condolences to the families of the two individuals who died in this senseless act of violence as Chancellor of north Carolina central University, I want to take this this very opportunity here to provide additional information about the details of this particular isolated incident. Please know that this case remains active and it's being investigated by the Durham Police department. We're also here with us today. Let me begin by assuring everyone the S. E. C. U. Community and the public at large that our campus is safe and remains a safe and healthy environment. My sincere thanks and gratitude to the NccU Police and Public safety department along with Durham Police Department for quickly responding to the scene And for immediately working to attend to the two victims while also ensuring the safety of those who were on campus attending forced home football game. NCCU police at the surface parking lot between the pre street and Lawson Avenue responded within seconds of hearing the gunshot close by. Their quick response, save lives and protected our students, faculty and staff fans and guests who was still assembled in the Ocala Redick stadium. After the lockdown for the stadium and surrounding area was lifted, NccU police and Durham police were meticulous and personally escorting individuals who packed in the lift and parking deck to their cars. Over the course of three hours, you will hear more about the incident from Chief Williams mentally. He would also correct information regarding the exact location of this tragic incident. While unforeseen tragedies such as these occurred. This one took place too close to the heart of north Carolina central University where our students leave and learn violence of any kind anywhere is unquestionable. Yeah. Over the past three years We have invested more than $3 million dollars instead of the art security technology on our campus. More than 900, cameras I've been installed in buildings and all around the campus. We have many blue lights all around the campus. We've installed card key entry for all of our buildings. Procter alarms and more personality patrol how corners of the university. These investments have yielded positive results and quickly investigating and solving incidentally and closing cases. The S. E. C. U. Police department is vigilant and uses a multi level approach to campus safety and security including food bike segue and vehicular patrol of the campus interior an exterior perimeter. They regularly conduct training exercises throughout the academic here with our emergency response and emergency management teams as well as with the city and county emergency entities which proved valuable on saturday. However, what we cannot control our crimes on the street of europe and around the perimeter of our campus that impact our campus, such as the event on saturday. We are a public institution and an open campus. We cannot close up our campus university with iron fences and gates. This press conference is a call to action. We are pleading with our city county Instead officials to commit to devoting more resources and attention to combating the issues of crime in Durham so that the lives of those on our campus, in the neighborhoods around us and the larger Durham community can be protected. This is a matter of health and shift for our students. Faculty stop and the residents of Dora, we will not live in fear or have our health and well being at risk due to gun violence and crying around our community. It has to stop today. As chancellor, I lead the charge to stand up for and safeguard our students and all members of our community as well as visitors and guests that are coming to our campus. Saturday's incident should not be repeated anywhere in our city. I asked there are public sector partners join us in this fight to protect Nccu and in your own community, Durham is a vibrant community and the safety of its citizens should be a matter of utmost priority. I am happy at this time to present Chief of Police Chief Damon Williams who would speak And then of course after you've heard all of the presentations, we will take a few questions from the press. Once again, we want to thank you for taking the time to come here today. Thank you. Yeah, yeah, chief so good afternoon everybody. One of the first things I want to do is praise the officers and first responders who responded to this incident on saturday. Our partners here in Durham during Police Department uh the Durham Tech Police Department and the Duke University Police Department for assistance in this matter. Before I speak, I'm going to turn it over to the Durham City Police Department to provide a statement and then I'll come back to the microphone. Good afternoon. I'm Lieutenant Geneva's Minor with the Durham Police departments, Public Affairs unit and I'm here to introduce major walter Tate of our investigative service bureau. He will be briefing you on the homicide investigation that occurred saturday September 18 in the 700 block of East Lawson Street. We will be discussing this case only and will not be discussing any additional cases at this time. Major take yeah. Good afternoon. During Police Department. We're investigating a fatal shooting that happened saturday Night in the 700 block of east los of ST also responded to the sound of gunshots in the parking lot adjacent to Latham Park today on the campus of north Carolina Central University Shortly after nine pm on saturday when they arrived. Excuse me. When we arrived, We found two men who had been shot. The men identified as Shamari Brown 21 Kentavious Rose 18, both of Durham were taken to a local hospital where they died a short time later. Based on our preliminary investigation, the suspect vehicle is described as a black nissan ultima and the incident does not appear to be random. This case remains under investigation and there are no further details available at this time. Anyone with information is actually called Investigator Mitchell at 919 560 44 40 extension 29335. Our crime stoppers at (919) 683 1200. Crime stoppers pays cash rewards for information leading to arrests and felony cases case. Excuse me and college never have to be identified. Thank you. So some of the things that we want to clear up that I think have been mis reported uh, is a specific location of the incident is, isn't it occurred not in our parking deck, but on our open parking surface lot between Dupri and Lawson Street. I think there's been some confusion about where this had taken place. Uh, and so I wanted to make sure that we clarify that for your presence also has major Tate said this was not a random act. We don't believe to be self, I do want to say that the university Police department along with our partners here in during have taken great measures to ensure the safety of the students on Northland Seven University's campus, like the Chancellor said, we made heavy investments in ensuring that our students have a safe environment, uh, to come to learn live and play. So, um, just there was some questions also about the stadium and if the individuals in the stadium were put in any danger, no time, of course, what we wanted to do it first was recognized that we had a situation occurring and we wanted to keep those patrons in our stadium safe. We did go into a short lockdown while we conducted a search for the individuals that may have been involved in this process. Uh, we asked everybody to shelter in place until we can clear the area and ensure that everybody was safely return to their vehicles, working with the, during police department. I think that night, the cooperation in a spirit of cooperation to ensure that everyone was safe and everyone left campus safely was truly known. So I want to really reach out to them and thank them for all the resources that they assisted us in providing. Once again the during police department going to be taking the activist leader investigation and we don't want to impunity, compromise, anything dealing with that. So we're gonna provide details as they come out at a later date. Okay. Mhm. Mhm Mr greetings everyone. I am Derek Stanfield student body president for the 2021 22 academic year here at nccu It is with a heavy heart that I join you all today. Before I begin on behalf of our student body, I would like to express my deepest condolences to the family members of those involved in the tragic incident that took place on saturday as a member of the Darryl community. I also pray for the safety of everyone in our community, saturday's occurrence is reflective of the growing issue of violence in the city of Durham and its overflow or to our campus. I'm confident in our universe is commitment to ensuring the safety of the members of our university community. The Student Government association will continue to support and assist the efforts of university police to provide a safe environment for all of our students to learn. Our students would like to. Our students will like to assist the city of Durham in their efforts, their continued efforts in these efforts to help foster a safer environment for our students. I would also like to commend the first responders along with the city of Durham for their instant action in regard to the incident that took place on campus. So at this time we will open it up for a few questions if you can raise your hand to be acknowledged. Yes and identify your station There have. Loren, Thompson spectrum is one or thanks I any information. Um let me assure you that the first thing that we did was to ascertain that the victims and the assailant, we're not Nccu students and of course they were not also not patrons uh football game because the, the rest of us were in the stadium actually locked down while this was going on. Now, I cannot speak to the identity of the victim or the ceiling, but I can let the Chief of Police address that. Mhm. So due to the nature the current investigation, that information is not available at this time. Yes. Hi Sara Krueger with WRL we've been hearing that you know you mentioned there are many surveillance cameras on campus. We've been hearing that there have been some problems with them and that they are not always working. Can you comment on if the cameras in this area we're working and if so what they were able to capture if it will be an assistance to the investigation? Well let me first correct the assumption that the cameras aren't working. We spend $3 million dollars on this technology and they work perfectly as a matter of fact, within minutes of the incident. The reason why they were able to identify the car that was involved in the shooting was because of one of the cameras installed in the lift and parking deck. It worked very well and they were able to identify that car very well. So it's paying dividends for us. Okay. If I could, I think some clarity to that question is this is that we provide access to some locations around campus so that they can see those areas but they do not have total access. So the assumption sometimes is that the cameras are not working are not working. But those cameras all feed into a central network. Yeah. Mm pessimistic at the so you talk about resources from the city and the county going well um in the past we've met with city officials with our student body, some members of our community and we've we've provided some resources that we believe will be helpful to this community? one of such is the shot spotter that we asked them to install around the university. This is a technology that's been used in many other urban cities across the country across the country. And we know that nothing is a panacea for everything. But we believe that that would happen for the identification of those who are communities, uh hideous crimes. And that yet Is to be determined. We're still working with the city on that. That's one we've also been grateful to have the the city of Durum to engage in an mou with us that now gives uh campus police department some control of some of the streets that are, you know, in the perimeter of our campus so that we can actually respond faster and quickly entered the scene on this apartment street. But there are so many other our resources uh sort as putting more for sure uh in this area. Uh huh. And of course putting phones in the community and uh surrounding the university to create jobs and educate people who may be involved in activities that we don't approve and encourage. So these are people who know what to do and we have pleaded and we have submitted items to them before. And so we would love to see them become more engaged, more proactive and pay attention to the needs of our community. Yeah. Um what has been some of the reaction from students and parents of MTP. You, have you received any questions about the security of students? Are any student substance or? Well, because of the rapid response that we had on saturday due to these uh, wonderful officers. Um, There was no one within the stadium and on campus that was in danger. And so we put out uh notice through our communication office immediately to the students and to the staff and to family and friends that the campus is safe. And as such, we didn't get any uh, you know, reactions or responses from, from our community. Seven. Yes. So of course, we take the feedback about students highly with in high regard, one of the things that we're gonna do this week, and we're gonna do some Town hall talks. We have discussed it with our students. We want to hear what they think, uh, and what's on their minds. And we also want to share with them the facts because there's a lot of things going around on social media, but not factual. So as we have no discussion, we're gonna be open. We want to hear the good, the bad and the ugly, and we want to address those without students, give them a chance to to hear how the response went. What happened? What are we doing to be proactive in its campus, how we're being safe And we've already started that process and what we hear from our students is that they, they see us engaged on a daily basis. Um, they see the officers out on foot, they engage them in the residence halls, so they know that we take their safety very seriously. Uh, it is our number one goal. We see ourselves as the guardians of the nest and it takes all of us to keep this campus safe. So we're going to engage in this week, we're gonna have some great discussion, we're gonna have some great dialogue. Um, we even go out just last week, we were out with students during a safety campus tour. We rode around campus and look for areas that are darkened and that present dangers to them so we can repair those things day and night. So we're constantly engaged and so we want to give them that avenues to share their concerns and also hear the facts from the police depart, which states that happening, they're going to be scheduled throughout the week throughout the week and they'll be done more any more intimate setting with the students and uh, add a little bit about the student reaction. Uh, one thing that we champion here as chief Williams said is campus safety and at no point during the incident where students out of the loop due to the amount of notifications that were given about the constant updates and everything that was occurring. Uh, there of course was a level of shop being that it occurred so close to home and then such an untimely manner but were supportive University police and their commitment to our safety. We look forward to those town halls as well, cheap. Yeah, yeah. And then chancellor, as you probably know, there was another shooting this afternoon that's right across the street from the communications building, not on campus, but certainly right beside it. So it, you know, feeling like this is now happening more often and wanted to see if you could react to the latest news of today's shooting as well. What I would say to you is really simply reemphasized the comments that have made about the safety on campus safety around the streets, the perimeters of the campus, the particular event that you are responding to. Um now in the hands of the Durham police and I don't have anything to say to it again. This is not an event that happened on our campus and before we will be closing. But before we do close, I would like to acknowledge another member of north Carolina Central University leadership team who is with us And that is Miss Akula Johnson Matheson who serves as Vice Chancellor for administration and Finance. So thank you all for coming. If anyone needs spelling titles, please let me know and I will give you that information

Sarah Krueger

Vinnie Boccanfuso

Ryan Bisesi

NCCU chancellor maintains school is a safe environment for students after shootings

North Carolina Central University,shooting

WRAL-TV News Broadcasts: Watch each newscast live or watch the most recent newscast on demand.

WRAL Late News 

Get the latest WRAL WeatherCenter Forecast whenever you need it, including the DUALDoppler5000 and the 7-Day Forecast.

I'm meteorologist K Campbell in the wr a severe weather center. It's been a warm spring so far. In fact, when you look at the spring to date numbers, it's actually the second warmest on record at RDU running about 4.5 degrees above normal and for rainfall about an inch and a half below normal. And we really need some rain. You know, it's been a pretty dry April so far we've seen less than an inch inch of rain this month tomorrow. It's a nice dry day for us, but I, you know, at least it's gonna be a nice day, right? 72 in the Triangle, as well as Siler City in Wilson. 70 in Rocky Mount. 67 though in Roxboro and 67 for Roanoke Rapids, a little cooler to the north. 76 degrees in Fayetteville, 73 Goldsboro in Smithfield and 75 in Southern Pines. It is going to be a little bit cooler in the morning because cold front moved through 50 degrees for the low in the triangle, right around 7 a.m. by 10 a.m. We're in the upper fifties, lunchtime, mid sixties and then in the lower seventies during the afternoon, dinner time, temperatures dip back into the upper sixties. A cold front passed earlier this evening and behind it, we are going to be drying out but cooling down briefly. It's not a huge drop in temperatures, but we will see this dip in the jet stream delivering some cooler air. We start to see a reversal of the jet stream flow and that changes really on Sunday with a warming southwest wind at the surface and at the jet stream level, that's going to drive temperatures up to 80 beginning on Sunday and the eighties will last into next week with a strengthening ridge of high pressure. So we expect a big climb in temperatures just throughout the course of the weekend, 48 degrees Friday morning, but back up to 80 by Sunday afternoon and then much warmer weather is on the way for next week. We're looking at seventies for the next few days with mostly cloudy skies for the weekend days. The sun's back out though next Monday and with a warming wind, we're back in the upper eighties three days in a row all the way up to 89 on Tuesday. Tuesday might be the 1st 90 degree day of the year for parts of North Carolina.

WRAL WeatherCenter Forecast

Nightly N.C. Education Lottery drawings during the 11 p.m. News.

Good evening. I'm Gayle Hurd. Welcome to tonight's drawings for Wednesday, April 24th, 2024. Well, let's get started tonight with our Carolina pick three. Our first winning number is a seven. Our second number is six and the third number tonight is a nine and our pick three. Fireball number is six. Joining me for tonight's show is our auditor from mcconnell and Jones L LP. Now let's move to the Carolina pick four. Good luck. Everyone who's that first winning pick four number, it's zero. Our second number is a nine. Third number tonight is three and our fourth number is one in our pick for fireball number. There it is. It's three. Again, we're turning now to the Carolina cash five and no one was the top prize tonight. Tomorrow's top prize is estimated at $620,000. Good luck. Everyone here's their first win in cash five number. It's a 29. Our second number, it's 37 3rd number tonight. It's 34. Our fourth number is lucky 13 and the final number in our cash five this evening is 12. The North Carolina Education lottery has contributed over $10 billion to education. Get your winning numbers right here every night on your exclusive station for the North Carolina Education lottery. Thanks for playing. Have a great night.

Evening Pick 3 Pick 4 and Cash 5

Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday Powerball drawings, as shown live on WRAL.

Ball. Good evening, Ruan, I Randy trainer. Tonight. We have another life changing jackpot. It's worth an estimated $130.2 million. So, get your tickets ready here. Come, tonight's winning numbers. Let's start things off this evening with the number 26. Right after that America. We have the number two and congratulations to Gina Magnum from North Carolina. She won $50,000 playing powerball. All right, the rest of your winning numbers tonight 20 47. And let's round it out tonight with the number 22 and tonight 20 powerball number, that's gonna be 21 and your power play multiplayer is four. Let's take another look at tonight's winning numbers. We'll see you back here on Saturday night. It's time to play America's favorite.

Powerball Drawing

Daytime Pick 3 and Pick 4 drawings are held at 3 p.m. daily. They can be seen as live or on-demand video.

Good afternoon. I'm Luis Fernandez. Welcome to this afternoon's drawings for Wednesday, April 24th, 2024. Let's get started with Carolina pick three. The first pick three number is two, second is eight and the third is eight and our pick three fireball number is five. Join me for this afternoon's drawing is our auditor for mcconnell LP. Now let's move to Carolina pick four. The first pick four, number is five. The second is one, the third is three and the fourth is zero and our pick four. Fireball number is five. The North Carolina Education lottery has contributed over $10 billion to education and thanks for your support.

Daytime Pick 3 and Pick 4 Drawing

Brian Shrader flies over the site of a plane crash at Raleigh-Durham International Airport approximately three hours after the accident.

Seen some activity just in the past 10 minutes or so. I want to take you outside Sky five right now for a live look at the scene. We saw a van being escorted to the runway there and someone got out and now there appears to be a really careful inspection of the debris going on. So we're working to confirm if that may be the NTSB investigation team arriving at the scene. Let's zoom out and give you some about where this is. There are two main runways at RDU International and this is in the grassy field next to the runway that mostly serves terminal one on the east side of the airport, that runway remains closed while this investigation continues at the top of your screen. That is the other main runway that serves terminal two, mostly that runway is open. So we have two things going on here that could affect your flights for the rest of the day and maybe even into tomorrow, the airport takeoff and landing capacity is roughly reduced by half because they are only working with one runway. And if you have a flight coming out of terminal one, maybe Southwest, you're going to have to take that crossover all the way out to that other runway. It's going to add a lot of extra time.

Sky 5 flies over RDU plane crash 3 hours later 

A UNC Health physician and pilot were taken to the hospital Wednesday after a small plane crashed at Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU).


Sky 5 flies over plane crash at RDU

RDU Airport Authority gives an update on a plane crash that sent a physician and pilot to the hospital. The crash occurred Wednesday morning on a flight that took off from Wilmington.

<p>Landguth first, I want to extend my thoughts to those affected by this morning's aircraft accident and thank our first responders for their quick action to respond. The airport authority and its mutual aid partners responded to an aircraft accident at RDU involving a general aviation aircraft. The accident occurred at approximately 10:10 a.m. in the grass next to runway five, right 23 left. The flight was arriving from Wilmington, North Carolina. The A the aircraft is owned by medical Air Inc and operated by UN C air operations. The aircraft had two people on board, one pilot and one passenger. Both were transported to area hospitals. The federal A Bush administration issued a ground stop that was lifted at approximately 1130 this morning. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board have both been notified. The National Transportation Safety Board is en route and expected to arrive within the next hour at which time we will conduct an accident investigation. Rdu's runway five left 23 right reopened to departing and arriving aircraft around 11:30 a.m. this morning. Are you experiencing approximately 70 delays and several arriving flights were diverted to other airports? Until ground stock was lifted, travelers should contact their airline for the latest updates regarding the flight status. And of course questions about the identity and condition of the pilot and passenger should be directed to UN C health. And at this time I'll try to answer any questions. You may have, uh, the one, any other accidents in, in the past. I'm not familiar with any other accidents have occurred with that operation. I don't know, uh, that's the role of the National Transportation Safety Board. They'll actually come in and do the investigation. Uh, and at some point in the future, they write up a report and determine what the cause of the accident was. You know, that there was no notification to the airport authority or to the FAA uh about any type of emergency on board. Do we have a guy? We don't, all we know that we've got them out of the airplane and we've got them transported to local hospitals. We know situations like this and delays have a ripple effect on, you know, flights. Do you have any idea what type of impact we'll see here in our view and for not sure, but what we're going to encourage everybody to do is reach out to your airlines. We'll be able to give you real time information about the impact of your particular flight. Ok. I believe some of them went to Greensboro and I think a couple went to Charlotte as well. What, what to be impacted due to the NTSD. Say that one more time at this point in time, what we call the west side of our airport is now open the investigation they'll conduct will all be on the east side. So at this point, we are anticipating normal operations returning to normal operations from this point forward. I don't think that anything that they're doing regarding the investigation or where they would have to investigate would have any impact to the west side of the airport. No, the aircraft is still on the airfield itself. It's on the east side of the field. So terminal one that runways the east side of the field, that's where the debris field actually sits, the west side of the field is open and operational and safe to operate. Not that I'm aware of in operations for you throughout this event today. What was your main concern concerning the passengers that were in the internals? Right. I think our primary focus when, when that accident occurred were the two people sitting in that aircraft? Our primary mission is to make sure we can get to them and try to rescue them and try to make sure that we can get them in a safe condition as fast as we possibly can. Uh secondarily is trying to figure out then how we recover and get our operations back up and running. Mhm. How does that affect? What goes on term? Yeah, so great. Question. So the team has figured out a way to get all the aircraft they're gonna operate at terminal one. Your Southwest develops. Uh We've got a crossover taxi way that we can actually get them through our general aviation aircraft. We've got a crossover taxiway, we can get them to. But the rest of the uh accident scene is actually kind of isolated and closed and locked off. Yeah, you're terminal one at this point in time. Once they can get back on their schedule, it's going to be a normal operations. All right. Thank you guys. All right. Thank you. Grab your phone, right.</p>

NCCU chancellor maintains school is a safe environment for students after shootings

More On This

NCCU chancellor maintains school is a safe environment for students after shootings

Related Topics

More Videos

WRAL Late News

WRAL WeatherCenter Forecast

Evening Pick 3 Pick 4 and Cash 5

Powerball Drawing

Daytime Pick 3 and Pick 4 Drawing

Sky 5 flies over RDU plane crash 3 hours later

Sky 5 flies over plane crash at RDU

News conference: RDU plane crash sent 2 to hospital