Campbell University senior Nick Boykin thought the worst part of his birthday would be taking a make-up test.
He was wrong.
At around 2 p.m. Wednesday, university administrators ordered a campus-wide lockdown while Harnett County deputies deliberated with 24-year-old Jared Dale Knight.
Officials came to Campbell to serve Knight arrest papers on the charge that he stole merchandise from a gun shop in Fuquay-Varina. Knight proceeded to lock himself in his house near campus and did not come out for three hours.
“The sheriff was concerned enough to bring a SWAT team to corner off the house,” said Haven Hottel, spokeswoman for Campbell University. “He finally got him to come out peacefully around 5 p.m.”
When police alerted administrators to the issue, a critical incident response team issued a lockdown. Students were told through text message, email, Facebook and Twitter to stay indoors.
Campbell’s alert system sent text messages to all students who signed up for campus alerts.
“At first we didn’t take it seriously, since this is such a small campus,” Boykin said. “But then my roommate told me he saw a SWAT team go toward (Knight’s) house.”
The lockdown was lifted at 5:10 p.m. after Knight surrendered and officers did a thorough search of his house.
