The man accused of killing a Wake County teacher and basketball coach was involved in a standoff in Pennsylvania before being arrested, police said.
60-year-old Rickey Harper is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 57-year-old Sheremy Dillard, according to Raleigh police.
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Dillard was a long-time high school basketball coach in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools district and began coaching at Felton Grove High School in Apex last year.
Police said they found Dillard's body around 12:18 p.m. on Thursday inside her Raleigh home on Whistling Straits Way with multiple stab wounds. Harper, who Raleigh police officers said was Dillard's boyfriend and lived at the home, was nowhere to be found.
Around 2:30 p.m. on Friday, Raleigh police notified the Plymouth Township Police Department that Harper might be in the area.
According to the Plymouth Township Police Department, surveillance video helped locate Harper’s white Chevrolet Astro van at the Plymouth Meeting Mall.
While walking to his van, police confronted Harper and tried to take him into custody, according to Plymouth Township police.
Plymouth Township police said Harper was confrontational with the detectives and refused to surrender and show his hands. Harper kept his right hand in his pants pocket and yelled at detectives to shoot him.
After a brief standoff in the parking lot between Harper and the detectives, Harper ran back to his van where he was later taken into custody.
Harper remains in the Montgomery County Correctional Facility where he waits for his extradition hearing under no bond.
Jameeah Purefoy-Thaxton, a former player for the coach who had known Dillard since middle school, said it was news she never saw coming, adding that she had just spoken to the coach two weeks ago.
"At first, I was sad, I was so hurt, because my coach? The sweet lady I know?" Purefoy-Thaxton said. "Now, I'm more angry and confused, because why her?"
Dr. Bob Hill, former athletic director of Hillside High School in Durham, said Dillard used to coach the girls' basketball team. While there, he said she became a mentor to many of her colleagues and one who connected with her students.
Hill described her as a "shining diamond of her family" who went above and beyond for everyone. Hill said Dillard and her family are very well-known in the Durham area.
"I hope everyone in her close family heals from this," Purefoy-Thaxton said. "I hope they find peace in this, and I hope they bring her justice, because she deserves it."