Man in custody after hospital gun scare

John Christopher Cole, 17, of 315 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Greensboro, was charged with possession of a weapon on school grounds, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and underage possession of alcohol.

Maria Parham Medical Center employees saw on a security monitor that a man had retrieved a firearm from an automobile shortly after 12:30 p.m. and was running toward the physicians' entrance to the hospital, police said.

Hospital officials notified police and placed the building on lockdown, allowing officers to conduct a floor-by-floor search.

The man wasn't found in the building, but investigators identified him as a Kerr Vance Academy student, police said.

Investigators went to the school and detained Cole, who turned over a BB gun to them, police said.

At one point, about a dozen police cars were parked outside the hospital, and two were blocking the ambulance entrance.

The lockdown ended shortly before 2 p.m., and police left the hospital.