Duke police are searching for a 62-year-old man with a history of assault charges who has reportedly been harassing women on campus for several days.
Several women have notified police that they have seen or been approached by a man matching the description of Samuel Williams Ferebee, a Chapel Hill resident who has a history of problems with police at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Ferebee, who police say has been convicted of several violent crimes elsewhere in the state, will face charges April 29 for two counts of assault on a female and one count of misdemeanor stalking, after a Duke student accused him of touching her at a March 27 UNC-CH event. He is out on bail.
Officers at Chapel Hill had served Ferebee a trespassing order in December 1999 after several students complained he had touched them and made inappropriate comments. The recent charges against him and several sightings of him this week at both Duke and UNC-CH have put the campus' police departments on alert and have resulted in numerous e-mails on campus listservs.
Lt. Sara-Jane Raines of the Duke University Police Department said students and staff members have reported seeing Ferebee on both East and West campuses. According to police reports, he proceeds to ask several questions, including students' names and phone numbers. In one reported incident at Duke's Center for Latin American Studies, Ferebee posed as a UNC-CH professor.
Raines said Ferebee has not been accused of any crimes on Duke's campus, but that police are pursuing a trespassing order for harassing community members.
"This man has not done anything that we can determine as criminal on campus, but we do want to talk to him and see his reason for being here," Raines said. "If anybody on this campus doesn't look like a student and is making someone uncomfortable, and they don't feel comfortable approaching that person, they should contact us."
Ferebee could not be reached for comment. Police said he has only been in the Triangle area for two years, and before then had been convicted of attempted rape among other crimes.
Women should generally be aware of strangers on campus, said Donna Lisker, director of Duke's Women's Center. She said she has been trying to contact as many people as possible through e-mail, including sorority listservs. She added that two community members have approached the center after reportedly encountering Ferebee.
"I think it's often the case that people who harass women or commit violence against women have a pattern, and if you know that pattern and can recognize it, you can protect yourself against it," Lisker said.
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