Chaos erupted in Rolesville today when gunfire was exchanged on South Main Street, leading police to take one person into custody and enact a precautionary lockdown at Rolesville Middle School. According to CBS 17, officers from various agencies, including Rolesville Police Department and the Raleigh Police Department, converged on the 400 block of Main Street shortly before noon.
Witnesses at the scene described a tense confrontation, with one bystander recounting to WRAL News how "Police were chasing somebody in a black vehicle," also explaining "I heard six shots fired, they kept going back-and-forth all over and eventually they had the AutoZone surrounded and a suspect on the ground." Neighboring establishments such as CVS, Exxon, and AutoZone were cordoned off, and a heavy police presence persisted into the afternoon, even though authorities assured there was no ongoing threat to the public.
Meanwhile, Rolesville Middle School was placed on a lockdown, initially a code red community lockdown, which was subsequently downgraded to a code yellow, as stated on the school's website, "At about 10:45 a.m. we were notified of police activity in the nearby area and entered a code red community lockdown, Shortly after, we were notified to go into a code yellow lockdown," details WRAL News. The alert status was lifted later in the morning after the police cleared the area following their investigation.
An eyewitness video acquired by WRAL News showed a dramatic exchange - a driver in a black sedan apparently opening fire on a police vehicle, the aftermath of the altercation left the police cruiser riddled with bullet holes, something that Chopper 11 footage from ABC11 also highlighted, showcasing the damaged windshield in the wake of the gunfire exchange. The specific circumstances surrounding the incident are still under investigation, and as of the early afternoon, the police had not provided any further details on the motivations or precipitating factors that led to the standoff.
The event caused disruptions not only for local law enforcement and businesses but also for the students undergoing End of Grade tests as confirmed activities inside Rolesville Middle School, with the school being less than a mile away from the site of the shootout, were able to resume as normal once the lockdown was lifted.
