UNC shooting updates: Students demand gun control with powerful newspaper front page after Chapel Hill attack
Student newspaper The Daily Tar Heel marked the tragedy with a powerful front page featuring the terrified text messages sent during the shooting
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Students at the University of North Carolina are demanding action on gun control in the wake of Monday’s deadly Chapel Hill campus shooting.
Around 600 students took part in a rally on Wednesday calling for stricter state gun laws and holding a moment of silence for slain professor Zijie Yan.
The student newspaper The Daily Tar Heel marked the tragedy with a powerful front page on Wednesday, featuring the terrified text messages sent by loved ones to its editor-in-chief during the active situation. The page has gone viral.
Many questions still remain about suspect Tailei Qi’s motive for the attack as the search for the gun continues.
Mr Qi, a PhD student majoring in applied physical sciences, had complained about the victim online in the lead-up to the attack and railed against hard work, “girls and tattletales” and bullies in the US.
He was arrested and booked into Orange County Sheriff’s Office jail on a first-degree murder charge for fatally shooting Yan, the head of the Department of Applied Sciences.
UNC at Chapel Hill student newspaper’s heartwrenching front page
The Daily Tar Heel’s front page on Wednesday featured messages received and sent by students during the three-hour lockdown prompted by the active shooting situation on Monday.
UNC Chapel Hill shooting victim identified as associate professor Zijie Yan
Authorities have identified the fatal victim in Monday’s shooting at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
UNC PhD student Tailei Qi has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the killing of Zijie Yan, an associate professor in the department of applied physical Sciences and researcher who also served as Qi’s adviser, according to the university’s website.
Professor who survived 2019 shooting at UNC Charlotte campus had to barricade with student on Monday
Classes cancelled until Thursday, UNC to honour slain professor
Classes at the UNC Chapel Hill campus have been cancelled until Thursday following an active shooting situation that sent faculty into a panic and left one dead.
A day after the violence that led to the arrest of doctoral student Tailei Qi, therapy dogs, peace signs and messages of hope could be seen around campus as the community reeled from the traumatizing scene on Monday, WSOCTV reported.
On Wednesday, UNC’s Bell Tower will ring in honour of slain professor Zinjie Yan, who had joined the university in 2019.
Mentor remembers slain professor Zaijei Yan as ‘swee, dedicated’ researcher
Doug Chrisey, Yan’s former advisor at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, shared a heartfelt tribute on Tuesday.
“He would knock on my door with incredible experimental results and a huge smile ... He would leave feeling he didn’t understand anything about the nucleation and growth of nanoparticles, but still with a huge smile,” Mr Chrisey wrote in a Facebook post, according to The News & Observer.
“He had a resting sweet face — and everything about his personality was consistent with that,”
Alleged shooter Tailei Qi described as 'somewhat reserved’
Wen Liu, a 2022 UNC graduate who worked in the lab with Qi, said told the AP that he was “somewhat reserved” but still “pretty sociable.”
“For hours he would just be doing things and explaining along the way,” Liu said.
Liu also said that Qi would often answer other lab member’s questions with “patience and respect.”
DA says he will not seek the death penalty in Tailei Qi’s case
Mr Qi appeared in court on Tuesday and was ordered held without bail. The suspect had a Mandarin interpreter during his arraignment who explained court proceedings to him and was scheduled to reappear in court next month.
Prosecutors did not share a potential motive for why Mr Qi allegedly carried out the attack on Yan. In an interview following the hearing, Orange County District Attorney Jeff Niemen said he would not be seeking the death penalty in Mr Qi’s case “or any case,” FOX8 reports.
Responding to criticism about his stance on X, formerly known as Twitter, Mr Nieman said: “I was very transparent about my position on the death penalty in candidate forums.”
A new college term, a faculty member killed and a student arrested: What we know about the UNC shooting
Tailei Qi shared several cryptic posts online after joining the University of North Carolina in 2022.
The well-educated graduate student – who previously studied at both Wuhan University and Louisiana State University – complained about bullies, aired his grievances with some “girls and tattletales” and grumbled about his head of lab.
What we know about UNC shooting suspect Tailei Qi
Just days into the second term of his PhD studies, Tailei Qi allegedly entered the science lab at the UNC’s Chapel Hill campus and shot his lead faculty member dead. Rachel Sharp reports
The shooting in Chapel Hill took away the magic of a place I love
“As soon as I got a text from a friend that a shooting was happening on campus, my heart sank,” The Independent’s Eric Garcia writes.
The shooting in Chapel Hill took away the magic of a place I call home
As soon as I got a text from a friend that a shooting was happening on campus, my heart sank
Students of Asian descent at UNC campus feared to be racially profiled after wrong arrest
Shortly after the shelter-in-place order was issued, local media obtained footage of an on-campus arrest of who was believed to be the suspect in Monday’s shooting.
The young man was briefly handcuffed but was later released, with UNC police clarifying later that evening that authorities had mistaken the student, who was unaware of the lockdown, for the shooter because their “descriptions matched.”
Students of Asian descent told NBC News that they also feared they would be racially profiled before managing to find a place where they could barricade.
“We are all international Chinese. Sometimes I wear contacts but the other day I wore glasses. So I was a little bit afraid the police couldn’t differentiate me with the killer. If I came outside, I [could] also get handcuffed,” Johnson Wei told NBC.