Alamance County student arrested after off-campus guns, narcotics investigation

A school-resource-officer concern at Eastern Alamance High School led Alamance County investigators to off-campus firearms and narcotics, but deputies said they do not believe the campus itself was threatened.

The case began on March 17, 2026, when an Alamance County Sheriff’s Office school resource officer opened an investigation at the Mebane-area high school. From there, sheriff’s investigators worked with patrol deputies and an Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Task Force officer as the inquiry expanded beyond school grounds.

By May 5, deputies took a juvenile into custody at Eastern Alamance High School under a juvenile secured custody order. The sheriff’s office said the arrest was tied to firearms and narcotics found off campus, not at school. Officials said that distinction matters: the weapons were not being kept on campus, and no on-campus threat is believed to exist at this time.

Investigators said some of the guns had been modified to function as fully automatic firearms, meaning they had been altered so they could fire continuously with a single trigger pull rather than operate as standard weapons. Deputies also found narcotics connected to the case, adding a drug component to what started as a weapons investigation.

Sheriff Terry Johnson fully briefed Alamance-Burlington School System administration as a proactive step, and the sheriff’s office said the response reflected the role it plays in law enforcement, detention, court duties and school-resource-officer support. Eastern Alamance High School principal Suzanne Simpson leads the school’s administration.

The sheriff’s office said the investigation remains active and no additional information was released. It is also offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest, a sign that investigators are still trying to develop the case after the juvenile’s custody was secured.

For Alamance County parents, the key facts are the timeline and the boundary between school and off-campus activity: a school-based concern triggered the investigation, the search expanded with help from multiple law-enforcement partners, and deputies say the danger was not inside Eastern Alamance High School when the arrest was made.