Tense day in Durham ends in street standoff amid rumors of KKK march

DURHAM -- Hundreds descended on downtown Durham on Friday to oppose a rumored KKK march. When the white supremacists didn’t show up, a smaller group wound through the streets headed for a tense standoff with police wearing helmets and holding batons.

The Sheriff’s Office says it warned community leaders that a white supremacist group might march downtown Friday based on information it had received throughout the week.

“Similar to a tornado watch that indicates conditions are favorable for a weather event, the highest levels of Sheriff’s Office notified the appropriate leaders of the community of the potential for a critical incident as it continued to verify information,” sheriff’s spokeswoman Tamara Gibbs said Friday afternoon. “This was done proactively to allow for planning in the event the Agency received verified information.”

As of Friday evening, there was no white supremacist march.

But tensions flared late in the day as a group of 50 to 75 people engaged police in a standoff in the street outside the Durham Police Department headquarters.

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