An individual who robbed two women near UNC-Wilmington’s campus has not been caught, but university officials say there are no plans to change security policies in light of the incident.
The armed robbery was reported Monday night by two women near campus, who were in their car when a man threatened them in the parking lot of Hardee’s on South College Road. He reportedly ran toward campus at 11:58 p.m. after taking their cellphones and a wallet.
The campus locked down immediately, and its alert system notified students and faculty of a dangerous and armed individual possibly on campus and advised all personnel to stay inside.
Campus police and dogs searched for the man, but the lock down ended at 5:40 a.m. Tuesday with a warning to campus personnel to stay alert.
Classes resumed as normal Tuesday despite the fact that the man had still not been apprehended by campus police.
Cindy Lawson, assistant to UNC-W’s chancellor, said there’s no reason to believe that the suspect is still on campus.
Administrators have no intention of changing the procedures for campus police, which focus on communication and the alert system, she said.
“When something like this is brought to our attention, we make sure we communicate through email, a banner on the web page, you know social media — everything we have available,” she said.
UNC-W conducted a review of its campus alert system after it failed to notify students of a shooting at an apartment complex off campus in July. Administrators said at the time that the failure of UNC-W’s siren and text message notifications was a rare event and not due to a lack of testing.
