University of North Carolina graduate student charged with murder of faculty member

Murder of faculty member: A graduate student at the University of North Carolina was charged with first-degree murder in connection with the fatal shooting of a faculty member, which prompted a campus lockdown and a search for the perpetrator.

Tuesday evening, Tailei Qi, 34, is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing regarding the murder of Zijie Yan in a Chapel Hill science facility on Monday. In addition to the murder allegation, he is also charged with possessing a firearm on school property.

ACCESS MORE: A professor was shot and killed in a University of North Carolina science facility.

Yan is listed as an associate professor in the Department of Applied Physical Sciences on the school’s website, while Qi is listed as a graduate student in Yan’s research lab.

Chapel Hill resident Qi was arrested during the approximately three-hour lockdown that followed the shooting, according to a Monday news conference held by authorities.

“Having the suspect in custody affords us the opportunity to determine the why and the how, as well as a motive and the reason why this incident occurred today. Why today and why at allU? According to UNC Police Chief Brian James. “Additionally, we wish to learn from this incident, and we will do our utmost to ensure that this never occurs again on the UNC campus.”

Faculty member killed in Campus shooting at UNC-Chapel Hill

University of North Carolina graduate student charged with murder of faculty member

Monday at 1 p.m., campus police received a 911 call reporting shots discharged at Caudill Labs, according to James. Two minutes after an emergency alert was issued, sirens sounded, initiating a lockdown in which terrified students and faculty barricaded themselves inside dorm rooms, bathrooms, classrooms, and other school facilities.

James stated that officers who arrived at the laboratory building discovered a faculty member who had been gravely shot. According to the chief, police arrested the suspect shortly after 2:30 p.m. based on witness information.

Jones declined to elucidate, but WRAL reported that the arrest took place in a residential neighbourhood close to campus.

The curfew was lifted at approximately 16:15. There were no other injuries reported.

Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz stated, “This loss is devastating, and the shooting damages the trust and safety that we so often take for granted in our campus community.”

Qi joined the Yan Research Group a year ago, according to the group’s UNC webpage. Yan earned a Ph.D. in materials engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York and served as an assistant professor at Clarkson University previously. In 2019, he joined the Chapel Hill faculty.

Qi studies nanopartical synthesis and light-matter interaction as a graduate student in the department of applied physical sciences. According to the UNC webpage for the Yan Research Group, he moved to the United States after obtaining a bachelor’s degree in physics at Wuhan University.

A week after students returned to the state’s flagship public university for the autumn semester, the shooting sparked fear.

Clayton Ulm, a 23-year-old graduate student, reported that he was in a class of 50 to 70 students when they were instructed to go into seclusion. The alarm system had activated, and classroom displays had also illuminated with the lockdown instruction.

“Then there was a great deal of panic as students tried to figure out what to do,” Ulm said in a Linkedin message while still in the classroom and entering the third hour of lockdown. “We then all began cowering beneath our chairs and desks. Some pupils locked the doors and left.”

Police Investigation

James stated that it took about an hour and a half to relieve the lockdown following the arrest because authorities had to confirm they had the correct suspect in custody.

He stated that campus police had also received inquiries about other potential victims and gunshots that required investigation.

James stated, “We had to ensure that the entire campus was secure.”

According to James, it was unclear whether the suspect knew the victim. He added that the weapon has not been discovered.

“We are in search of a firearm. It is too soon to ascertain whether the firearm was obtained legally,” he said.

Tuesday classes were cancelled at the university, which has approximately 20,000 undergraduate students and 12,000 graduate students.