Suspect arrested in University of North Carolina shooting
Campus of University of North Carolina.
A suspect is in custody after a shooting at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Monday (August 28). Thesuspect was arrested near a residential area 10 minutes away from campus, but the weapon used in the shooting is yet to be recovered.
An “all clear” was issued by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Tuesday (August 29), hours after police officials responded to an “armed and dangerous person on or near campus,” the university said. As per reports, one faculty member was killed in the shootout.
The alert of all clear came after another alert was sent by the police to the students asking them to shelter in place around 1 pm local time, further suspecting that there was a suspect at large.
UNC Police had said that they were on the lookout for a “person of interest” and asked people to maintain their safe distance from him. All the students were asked by the university police to immediately go inside, close doors and windows and wait till further notice, as per an email.
The person of interest, identified as Tailei Qi, was arrested by the police, as reported by various media outlets. He was later charged with murder ofassociate professor Zijie Yan.
Taking to X later, the school posted, “All clear. All clear. Resume normal activities.” A witness present on campus, while speaking to CNN, said that they were locked down inside their building as search operations were carried out by armed officers.
'Armed and dangerous man' on campus
Police personnel, in huge numbers, were searching for an “armed and dangerous person on or near campus” after reports of the shootout, as per an alert issued by the university.
“Remain sheltered in place. This is an ongoing situation. Suspect at large,” stated the university, in an alert sent just before 2:30 pm ET.
The lockdown, which was imposed in the university after it was reported that one shot was fired inside the campus just after 1 p.m. local time, was lifted. Around the same time, the university sent out an alert saying, "Emergency: Armed, dangerous person on or near campus. Go inside now; avoid windows."
As per The Daily Tar Heel, one person suffered injuries. Students were kept under a shelter-in-place order as paramedics and police and paramedics continued to respond to the scene.
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The UNC Police shared the photo of the suspect on social media and said that “this photo shows a person of interest in today’s armed and dangerous person situation. If you see this person, keep your distance, put your safety first and call 911.”
North Carolina Gov Roy Cooper (D), taking to X, said that he spoke with Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Public Safety Eddie M. Buffaloe Jr and Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood (D).
In the post, he pledged “all state resources needed to capture the shooter and protect the UNC campus.”
For the university's new school year, the classes had begun a week ago.UNC-Chapel Hill had around31,700 students last fall, which included about 20,000 undergraduates.
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