Campus Alert Archive
Wingate

Forty-Five Minutes of Lockdown After a Red-Hoodie Stranger Stabbed a Wingate Student in the Hand

NCstabbingemergency notificationhigh confidence
Confirmed Threat

On the evening of January 12, 2024, Wingate University ordered a campus-wide lockdown shortly after 8 PM EST after a non-student attacker entered a dorm room and cut a Wingate student on the hand with a knife. The victim fled and police, dispatched a description of a white male in a red hoodie, located and apprehended suspect Nicklaus Jones within roughly 45 minutes.

Alerts
2
Response
—
Killed
0
Injured
1
Institution
Wingate University
Private Masters · NC
~3,300 studentsWingate Alert (Bulldog Alerts)
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

2 messages in sequence · 2 verified verbatim

INITIAL ALERTSMS
Verified verbatimQCNews / WJZY-WCNC coverage quoting the Wingate Alert verbatim150 chars
Wingate University has issued immediate lock-down procedures for the Wingate campus. Please lock all doors and windows and await further instructions.
Sent shortly after 8:00 PM EST on January 12, 2024, after a student reported being cut on the hand by an unknown male brandishing a knife
Brief 22-word lockdown instruction with no information about the attacker description (Wingate police separately disseminated to officers that they were seeking a white male in a red hoodie armed with a knife)
Uses 'lock-down' with a hyphen — preserved as-published
ALL CLEARSMS+30 min
Verified verbatimWCNC and multiple outlets quoting the Wingate Alert all-clear verbatim68 chars
The lockdown has been lifted. Police have the individual in custody.
Verbatim text confirmed by WCNC, WSOC, and Yahoo News coverage of the January 12, 2024 lockdown lifting
The notably terse all-clear (just 11 words) is consistent with Wingate's brief lockdown alert style
The lockdown lasted approximately 40 minutes (about 8:00 to 8:40 PM EST), an unusually quick resolution for an active-knife-attack alert
Context

Background

On the evening of January 12, 2024, Wingate University's main campus went into lockdown after a Wingate student was attacked with a knife in a dorm room by a man who did not belong on campus. The student was cut on the hand but managed to run away and call for help, giving police a description of a white male in a red hoodie. Wingate Police and Union County Sheriff's deputies quickly located and apprehended the suspect, later identified as Nicklaus Jones, who was not affiliated with the university. The campus alert — issued via Wingate's Bulldog Alerts system — was a terse 22-word lockdown instruction telling students to lock doors and windows and await further instructions. The lockdown ran from about 8:00 PM to around 8:40 PM EST before it was lifted, one of the shortest active-violence lockdowns on record at a North Carolina campus. Jones was identified on February 2, 2024, and charged with attempted first-degree murder and felony breaking and entering. The incident was the first of two armed-attacker lockdowns at Wingate in 2024; a separate June 28 incident involved gunfire at a youth baseball game on Wingate's field.
Analysis

Key Findings

Wingate's brief 22-word lockdown alert omitted suspect description information that police were simultaneously using to search the campus, a common tension in campus alerts between speed and operational specificity
The roughly 40-minute lockdown (about 8:00 to 8:40 PM EST) is one of the shortest documented active-attacker lockdowns at a North Carolina campus
This was the first of two armed-attacker lockdowns at Wingate in 2024, both involving non-affiliated attackers
The attacker was a non-student, reinforcing concerns about access control at small residential campuses
Outcome
The student victim sustained a cut to the hand but was able to run from the attacker. Suspect Nicklaus Jones, not affiliated with Wingate, was apprehended within roughly 40 minutes; he was later identified on February 2, 2024, and charged with attempted first-degree murder and felony breaking and entering. The lockdown was lifted the same evening, around 8:40 PM EST.
Provenance

Sources

  1. News
    Wingate University goes into lockdown after student reportedly stabbed (QCNews)
    qcnews.com
  2. News
    1 in custody after knife attack injures student at Wingate University (WSOC TV)
    wsoctv.com
  3. News
    Wingate University under brief lockdown Friday after student attacked with knife (WCNC)
    wcnc.com
  4. News
    Wingate student hurt in knife attack at university, suspect in custody (WBTV)
    wbtv.com
  5. Official
    Wingate University Campus Safety
    wingate.edu
Tags
stabbingnorth-carolinaprivate-collegelockdownnon-affiliated-attackerresidence-hallwingate
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion