High school student charged with threatening Gray's Creek High School

A high school senior was charged Wednesday with threatening his high school in Cumberland County and resisting a law enforcement officer.

A code red lockdown at Gray's Creek High School in Hope Mills was lifted Wednesday after sources told WRAL News a student threatened to shoot up the school.

School sources told WRAL News the student and his father were being investigated after the student allegedly made the comment that he was going to “empty a clip on the school.”

Dwight McCoy, 19, of Hope Mills, was arrested and charged with communicating threats of mass violence on educational property, malicious conduct by a prisoner and resisting a public officer.

There was no shooting, and the student did not have a weapon, according to the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office.

McCoy was being held at the Cumberland County Detention Center under a $20,000 secured bond.

School officials told WRAL News the student's father got involved, explaining the student was already facing disciplinary action when he called his father to the school. Sources told WRAL News the teenager and his father got into an argument with deputies and school security staff, and the situation escalated, including profanity.

The threat prompted a large law enforcement response and a precautionary code red lockdown before 10:30 a.m. The lockdown was lifted a short time later.

Students were already texting their parents about the lockdown before the school's automated message was released to families.

“We were sitting in class and then we heard our principal come up over the intercom and she said we were going into code red," said Noah Hyatt, a sophomore. "When you hear that you’re like, is this actually real, or is this rumors?”

Hyatt said he was "scared and "worried."

"Obviously we didn’t know what was going on," he said. "I think everyone was just in question.”

A spokesperson for the district said it's understandable that parents will want to rush to the school when something like this happens.

"Whenever there’s an emergency, we always want to let law enforcement resolve it," said Lindsay Whitley with Cumberland County Schools. "We want them to be able to respond appropriately, so it helps if parents stay off campus and really allow us to resolve the situation."

Anyone with information is asked to contact Major Crimes Detective T. Morgan at 910-677-5563.