Student killed in North Carolina’s 2nd school shooting this week, suspect in custody

One student was killed after a gunman opened fire at a North Carolina high school, with the suspect – believed to be a fellow student – arrested after a brief manhunt. The school shooting is the state’s second this week.

Identified as William Chavis Raynard Miller Jr., the student succumbed to his injuries in hospital following the shooting at Mount Tabor High School on Wednesday, Winston-Salem Police Chief Catrina Thompson said during a press conference. The suspect, who police say was a student at the school, fled the scene but was brought into custody several hours after the shooting. 

“The suspect from the shooting at Mt Tabor High School was taken into custody without incident,” the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement on Wednesday evening. Police could not say whether the suspect had any prior run-ins with the law. Asked if the incident may have been “gang related,” the sheriff said it was too early to speculate about motive.

The school campus was placed on lockdown and secured after the incident, as were several other schools in the Winston-Salem area “out of an abundance of caution,” police said. While a “disturbance” was reported near a supermarket about one mile south of Mount Tabor High, authorities said no second shooting occurred and there were no injuries. A local reporter later explained that an individual at the scene had caused panic after stating they heard shots fired, in what turned out to be a false alarm.

Mount Tabor High is the second school in the state to be marred by gun violence in the space of three days. On Monday, a shooting at New Hanover High School in Wilmington left a student with non-life threatening injuries, seeing a 15-year-old arrested and charged the same day. The shooting reportedly erupted over an argument on campus.

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