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.
Who is UNC shooting suspect Tailei Qi?
The suspect was identified on Tuesday as Tailei Qi, a graduate student who joined the Yan Lab of the college in 2022.
Based on his online bio at the UNC, he studied under Dr Zijie Yan – the leader of the physical chemistry group the Yan Research Group and head of the Department of Applied Physical Sciences.
Before joining UNC, Mr Qi previously studied material science at Louisiana State University and physics at Wuhan University.
A Twitter account believed to belong to Mr Qi reveals that he had railed against his work and his head of lab as well as what he described as “bullies” in the US before allegedly carrying out the shooting.
In a post on 1 August 2022, he wrote: “Bully in america seems to be a problem. It often comes with people not stopping them at the first time.
“Explanation is not a solution but makes them feel others will plead them every time they raise a problem, making them voyeur to find an excuse day and night.”
Two weeks later on 18 August 2022, he tweeted about his “PI” – referring to his unnamed head of lab – handling “these girls and tattletales”.
“Just have a talk with my PI and get his promise. He should have more experience to handle with these girls and tattletales,” he wrote.
“Then, we can just get ourselves out of these stupid topic. Let’s just focus our attention on nature.I won’t change anything if not necessary.”
Wayne County principal criticised for ‘racist response’ to UNC shooting
A Wayne County school’s principal has faced severe backlash for his alleged racist response to the UNC-Chapel Hill shooting.
Wendy H Waters, the principal of Spring Creek Middle School, wrote on Facebook that there was “nothing white about him”, referring to the suspect accused of fatally shooting an associate professor.
She added an image of the suspect, Tailei Qi, to her post, CBS17 reported.
She continued: “My bet is he’s a Chinese Nationalist as a ‘visiting student’ stealing our intellectual property working for the CCP [Communist Party of China].”
In a statement from Wayne County schools, the district said Ms Waters’s comments “do not reflect the views of the school district” and that the matter is now under review.
WATCH: UNC faculty member dead after shooting on Chapel Hill campus
The shooting in Chapel Hill took away the magic of a place I love
When I first set foot in Chapel Hill, I remember feeling at home at once.
Despite being a Yankee who grew up on the West Coast, and even as sweat forced me to repeatedly change shirts amid the August humidity, the University of North Carolina was love at first sight for me.
The words of novelist and alumnus Thomas Wolfe that Chapel Hill “was as close to magic as I’ve ever been” rang as true to me as the gongs from the Bell Tower on campus tell the changing of time, writes Eric Garcia.
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
Mentor remembers ‘sweet, dedicated’ slain professor Zaijei Yan
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,”
District attorney will not seek death penalty for Qi
The district attorney will reportedly not seek the death penalty for Tailei Qi – the suspected gunman charged with fatally shooting a UNC professor on campus.
Mr Qi, 34, has been charged with first-degree murder over the death of associate professor Zijie Yan, and with possessing a 9mm pistol on campus.
District attorney Jeff Nieman said he would not seek the death penalty against Mr Qi, according to News&Observer.
Mr Nieman said an eyewitness led law enforcement officers to Mr Qi in a neighbourhood off campus after a 911 caller had reported shots fired inside Caudill Labs.
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.”
University to return to normal operations from today
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will return to normal operations at 12am on Thursday, it said in a statement.
The university had cancelled all classes and non-mandatory operations following the fatal shooting of a professor.
UNC student newspaper features powerful front page after shooting
The Daily Tar Heel’s powerful cover on Wednesday came together as the UNC at Chapel Hill continued to reel from the terrifying lockdown on Monday and the loss of assistant professor Zijie Yan.
The DTH’s print managing editor Caitlyn Yaede told The Independent that she had become emotional as she typed the heartwrenching messages on the front page.
“I’m in class, everyone is losing it,” “Are you safe? Where are you?” or “Come on sweetheart - I need to hear from you” were only a few of the dozens of texts included.
Read more:
UNC student newspaper features powerful front page after shooting
‘I’m in class, everyone is losing it,’ ‘Are you safe? Where are you?’ or ‘Come on sweetheart - I need to hear from you’ were some of texts included on The Daily Tar Heel’s front page
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
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