Police arrested the suspect in the shooting of a gay man on the campus of a North Carolina college early Tuesday morning in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Kenneth Morgan Stancil, 20, who was sought in the Monday shooting of
Ron Lane, 44, a longtime employee of Wayne Community College in Goldsboro, N.C., is believed to have white supremacist connections and was also worked for Lane at the college’s print shop. Stancil was recently fired from his job at the campus print shop.
Goldsboro police said at a press conference Tuesday they were investigating the shooting as a hate crime, according to the Associated Press. According to the AP, Stancil was fired by Lane because Lane had too many absences.
Police did not say why they were investigating the killing as a hate crime.
“At this time, I’m not prepared to divulge that information,” Goldsboro police Sgt. Jeremy Sutton said at a news conference, the AP reported.
Police told WNCN that Stancil “has a distinctive tattoo on the left side of his face and the number 88 tattooed on his cheek. That number can represent ‘Heil Hilter’ for neo-Nazis, since H is the eighth letter of the alphabet.”
Lane had been in a 12-year relationship with Chuck Tobin. Tobin went missing last July and was found dead in November. Police said Tobin killed himself.