Last Sunday (March 26), a heavily armed white man was arrested on an HBCU campus. Although the threat was swiftly taken care of before any injuries occurred, many are now outraged that they are just finding out about what could have been a catastrophic event.
Greensboro police responded to calls of an individual threatening and chasing an unarmed security guard on the North Carolina A&T State University campus. Brandon James Bentley was detained, but what followed was shocking. The 27-year-old was in possession of two handguns, two shotguns, one rifle, a crossbow, a machete, stun gun, hatchets, knives, choking devices, pepper spray, a blow dart gun, brass knuckles, and other weapons stashed away in his vehicle. Authorities also discovered more than 1,000 rounds of various ammunition belonging to Bentley.
In an article published yesterday (April 3), Jannisha Stevens, a student at the university, told North Carolina news station Fox 8 that she and others were not made aware of the threat. “I don’t think that it was handled well. To hear about torture mechanism tools is really scary, and I don’t know why he would have that. Who is it for? Is it for somebody on this campus? I should know what’s going on campus. Especially something like this, for it to be kept from us… what is it? Is it an agenda or anything like that? Because I want to be able to protect myself if I see somebody like that or someone suspicious, so I can report it instead of being completely clueless.”
“#NCAT please be advised, reports and rumors circulating of an armed individual or activity on campus are FALSE. @NCATUPD1 has addressed claims and found them to be unsubstantiated. If a safety issue were to arise, an alert would be sent. Have a peaceful evening,” the North Carolina university tweeted on March 30. “I saw the news report on this. How is it false? How is it FALSE? How? He was released. He was on campus. How NCAT? How? Is my child safe on campus? Explain this tweet, please,” one person pleaded yesterday.
See what others are saying below.