NC school principal accused of raping 12-year-old student found dead

GOLDSBORO, N.C. — Police say a North Carolina principal accused of raping a 12-year-old student has been found dead of an apparent self-inflicted injury.

[RELATED: North Carolina principal charged with statutory rape]

Goldsboro police said on their Facebook page Monday that Orange County sheriff's deputies notified them that the body of 35-year-old Richard Omar Knight was found by hunters in a wooded area with a self-inflicted injury. The specific nature of the injury wasn't given.

He is alone in the video and appears to be carrying a blanket, authorities said. His car was found at a nearby gas station.

Knight's body was found on a rural road more than 100 miles from Goldsboro. Deputies released photos of Knight taken from a hunter's deer camera, which spotted him just after midnight Friday.

A warrant obtained by police on Friday charged Knight with statutory rape and a sex act and indecent liberties with a female student at Dillard Academy Charter School in Wayne County.

Knight, 35, of Smithfield, was the principal at Dillard Academy until he was charged Friday with raping a 12-year-old student on campus. Police responded to a report of sexual assault Thursday, and a warrant was secured Friday.

Police said Knight had been suspended from his job at the school, and added that an investigation into the incident is continuing.

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Associated Press