The man wanted in Monday's shooting death of a print shop director at a community college in North Carolina has been arrested in Daytona Beach.

Police in Goldsboro, N.C., said the accused gunman, Kenneth Stancil III, was found sleeping on the beach just north of International Speedway Boulevard, which is a violation of a city ordinance.

Volusia County Beach Safety and Ocean Rescue officers found Stancil around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Stancil's first court appearance before a judge took an unusual turn Tuesday afternoon.

Normally defendants are advised not to incriminate themselves. But in Stancil's case, he felt he needed to explain why he did what he did.



A warrant was issued for the 20-year-old, who allegedly killed print shop director Ron Lane, his former work-study boss, at Wayne Community College Monday.

The death is being investigated as a hate crime because Lane's supervisor said the victim was gay.

However, Stancil said he did what he did because Lane allegedly sexually molested someone he knew.

"I just want you to know I ridded one last (expletive) child molester from the (expletive) Earth," Stancil said in court.

During his arrest, Beach Safety Capt. Tammy Marris said Stancil brandished a knife.

"He brandished it like he wanted to defend himself,” Marris said. “He got up and he had the knife in his hand. But he quickly dropped it after he was ordered to do so."

Marris said officers removed a potential threat to beach visitors, like Debbie Ramos and Lori McGowen who are staying in a beachfront hotel just a stone's throw away from where Stancil was apprehended.

"Really scary and can't believe it. We're here on vacation and it's not something you expect to happen," McGowen said.

Stancil, who has several tattoos on his face and neck, such as the German cross and the number 88 -- a possible white supremacist code for Heil Hitler -- was advised to stay quiet.

But Stancil had one last word before going back to his cell, saying he was willing to suffer the consequences for what he did.

"Doing time is the easy (expletive) part, you know what I'm saying," said Stancil.

Stancil is being held without bond while awaiting extradition back to North Carolina.

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Reaction in North Carolina

By Emery P. Dalesio, Associated Press

First-year student Joniece Simmons, 19, said she was sitting on a bench outside the learning center on Monday, when two officers with rifles and a third with a drawn handgun ran toward the building, shouting for students to take cover. She and others ran inside to the cafeteria and locked the door.

Though they were urged to stay silent, some students still wanted to talk.

"I was like, 'Hush, it's serious.' I was crying," Simmons said.

Nearby, the private Wayne County Day School — with about 300 students in prekindergarten through 12th grade — also was on lockdown, said Melissa Watkins, a volunteer parent receptionist at the school.

"We saw 10 to 11 cruisers go by all at once," she said. "We knew something was going on; we just didn't know what or where."

Sheriff's deputies blocked the driveway to the white mobile home listed as the residence Stancil, shared with his mother and two younger brothers.

Barbara Williams, a next-door neighbor on the road lined with brick ranch homes, said Stancil's grandparents lived on the other side of the mobile home, where they operated an assisted living home. A sign in the front yard said "Stancil Family Care Home." An elderly man with a cane who came to the front door declined comment to an Associated Press reporter.

Williams said Stancil once helped her late husband when he fell out of his bed.

"He came over here and picked him right up and put him back on the bed," Williams said. "I've never had no problems with those kids … it just surprises me."

A beach patrol officer in Daytona Beach found Stancil sleeping on the beach with a knife, a spokeswoman for Volusia County Beach Safety Ocean Rescue said.

"Our officer did a well-being check on the subject and woke him up," spokeswoman Tamra Marris said in an email. "Initially the subject had a knife on him and was ordered to put the knife down. The subject complied with the officer's orders and the subject was apprehended without incident."

Stancil faces an open count of murder, Wayne County Sheriff Larry Pierce said Monday.

Associated Press writer Jack Jones contributed from Columbia, South Carolina.