A faculty member was shot and killed and a suspect arrested after an on-campus shooting at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill on Monday, school officials confirmed.
“I am grieved to report that one of our faculty members was killed in this shooting,” said UNC Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz in a statement. “We are waiting for confirmation that the next of kin has been contacted before we share more information.”
The unidentified faculty member was found by police at Caudill Laboratories, a chemistry building. Any connection between the victim and assailant was not immediately clear. No other injuries or fatalities were reported.
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The violence sent the school community of roughly 20,000 undergraduates and 12,000 graduate students into a frenzy for several hours.
Students and faculty were forced to shelter-in-place as heavily armed cops combed the school in search of the suspected gunman—whose photo, shared by authorities, matches the online UNC profile of graduate student Tailei Qi, pictured above.
Nearby elementary and middle schools were also ordered to lock down as officers tried to locate the shooter.
Around 4 p.m., police officers took a suspect into custody, issuing an “all clear” message to the university. WRAL News reports that Qi was the one arrested—though UNC Police Chief Brian James said that authorities would not immediately confirm the suspect’s name, since no official charges had yet been filed.
James also said that police were still hunting for the weapon used in the shooting, and it was too early in the investigation to announce any motive.
Ayden Scott, a UNC grad student and former classmate of Qi’s, told WRAL that he would nave “never guessed” that Qi would have done something so violent.
“Every single time he would talk to me, he seemed very nice. When I saw his face in the reports online, I was beyond shocked,” Scott said.
The university has cancelled classes and campus events for the remainder of Monday and all of Tuesday, according to Guskiewicz’s statement.
Read it at WRAL
