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GREENSBORO — When shots rang out on UNCG’s campus at just after midnight Saturday, police arrived to find a party at the Phillips-Hawkins residence hall. A fight had broken out, they were told, and ended when someone began shooting.

Nearby police found a car with a half ounce of marijuana in plain sight. They also found something much more troubling: a sawed-off shotgun. “We rarely, rarely see that,” said Capt. Paul Lester of the UNCG police. “Sawing down a shotgun to beneath 18 inches makes it easier to conceal, but it also makes it very much more dangerous.”

Police towed the car and took the contents into evidence. When 18-year-old Ricky Cooke tried to claim the car, police took him into custody.

Cooke, of 909 Tipperary Drive was charged with possession of marijuana, possession of a firearm on campus and possession of a weapon of mass destruction — a more serious charge brought on by cutting down the shotgun.

It was not the first time UNCG police had encountered Cooke.

In June, he was pulled over near the Greensboro Coliseum in a routine traffic stop by UNCG police and state Alcohol Law Enforcement agents. That night he was charged with possession of marijuana, possession of alcohol by a minor and two counts of carrying concealed handguns.

Cooke, who is due in court this month and next on various other charges, is not a UNCG student. That’s not unusual for UNCG police, sworn officers assigned to the campus and its surrounding area.

“With more serious charges like concealed weapons, we’re usually looking at people from off-campus,” Lester said. “Those are the kinds of things we usually run into on the edges of the campus, the adjoining streets and the surrounding area.”

Lester couldn’t say whether Cooke attended the party, which was reported to have had about 100 participants.

Cooke could not be reached for comment Monday.

When someone from off campus is deemed a habitual problem or a danger to students, UNCG police ban them from campus.

“In a case like this, he’ll be banned for the maximum amount of time we can, which is two years,” Lester said. “We’d like to ban them for longer, if we could.”

Contact Joe Killian at 373-7023 or joe.killian@news-record.com