Police arrested a man after he allegedly robbed a teacher at knifepoint, locking her in a closet when she arrived at work in Nashville on Tuesday morning, according to a report.
A report from the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) said the call came in for the aggravated robbery after 7 a.m. and officers were dispatched to LEAD Cameron School, a charter school for grades five through eight.
The 36-year-old woman told police that she was allegedly approached by the man, who was later identified as 65-year-old William Joe Buford, with a large butcher knife, according to WSMV4.
As she arrived at work, she was allegedly forced inside the school’s gymnasium, per the outlet. Buford allegedly demanded she give him money, and when she told him she had none, he took her cell phone, earbuds, watch, and car keys.
Buford allegedly told her, “I’m not going to hurt you, but if you were a white (expletive), I’d kill you,” according to WSMV4.
She was locked inside a closet in the gymnasium and was left banging on the door until students heard her cries for help and freed her.
She banged on the closet door until students heard her calls for help and let her out. https://t.co/82B0D195Dm
— FOX19 NOW (@FOX19) August 31, 2023
The school went into lockdown once she was found, according to a school spokesperson, CBS 7 reported. (RELATED: Blue City Schools To Use Drones In ‘Violence-Prone’ Areas To Protect Students)
Buford reportedly left the school in the woman’s car and drove it to an underground parking garage, leaving it, and boarding a bus with the woman’s phone and watch, police reported.
MNPD officers located Buford by tracking the woman’s phone. He was found on Murfreesboro Pike underneath Interstate 24 and ran away when the officers approached him, running to the tree line on the other side. He was apprehended and identified by the woman, according to police.
Buford reportedly admitted to robbing the woman and “subsequently showed officers where he left the victim’s car,” when being interviewed, according to WSMV4 and the police report.
“It’s really scary that they don’t have much security,” parent Carla Avery told CBS7. “For the students, and the teachers, and the staff in the front office because someone can just walk in.”
A MNPD media release from Aug. 2, 2022, stated that Chief John Drake announced that police coverage at Metro Schools will be, “the highest ever, and will include elementary, middle and high school campuses.”
This increase in police coverage followed the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
Buford was booked and charged Tuesday afternoon with aggravated robbery, the police report noted. He remains in custody on a $100,000 bond and is awaiting a court hearing on Thursday.