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.
Student who survived Parkland shooting ‘forced to relive grief’ five years later in UNC attack
A student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill—who was also a Parkland school shooting survivor—said she was “forced to relive grief” following the UNC shooting this week.
Bella Miller was a freshman at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in February 2018 when a gunman opened fire at his former high school, killing 17 people.
Read more:
Student who survived Parkland shooting ‘forced to relive grief’ in UNC attack
‘Is this really happening to me again?’ Bella Miller, a UNC student-athlete wrote
Who was UNC Chapel Hill shooting victim Zijie Yan?
Authorities have identified the faculty member killed in Monday’s shooting at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
UNC PhD student Tailei Qi, 34, 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 a researcher. Mr Yan was listed as his alleged killer’s academic advisor on Mr Qi’s UNC profile, which has since been removed from the university’s website.
Before joining UNC in 2019, he was an assistant professor at Clarkson University in New York and received postdoctoral training at the University of Chicago. The slain professor leaves behind two young daughters.
UNC Chapel Hill shooting victim identified as associate professor Zijie Yan
Assistant professor Zijie Yan was the suspect’s academic advisor
UNC Chapel Hill graduate student Tailei Qi charged with murder in shooting of faculty member
A graduate student at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill has been charged with first-degree murder over the on-campus shooting that left one faculty member dead.
Tailei Qi, a second-year PhD student majoring in applied physical sciences, has been charged with the fatal shooting of his academic advisor, Zijie Yan. Mr Qi is facing charges of first-degree murder and carrying a weapon while on campus.
The suspect appeared in court on Tuesday and had an interpreter explain to him what happened in the courtroom in Mandarin, the Associated Press reports. He was ordered held without bond and his next court hearing was scheduled for 18 September.
A motive was not immediately clear. Chancellor Kevin M Guskiewicz said in a statement on Tuesday that he has met with the family of the slain assistant professor’s family.
“My leadership team and I have met with his colleagues and family to express our condolences on behalf of our campus,” the statement read. “Please join me in thinking and praying for his family and loved ones during this difficult time.”
UNC holds vigil in honor of slain professor Zijie Yan
UNC students seen jumping from windows in heartwrenching videos during active shooter situation
Heartwrenching videos show students hiding under desks and jumping from classroom windows during an active shooter situation the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The campus was placed on lockdown for several hours on Monday afternoon after an alert went out about an “armed person”. Police later confirmed one member of the faculty was killed and a suspect, identified as graduate student Tailei Qi, was taken into custody.
The motive for the shooting, which took place at the centre of the campus in one of the science buildings, remains unclear.
Throughout much of the active situation, those under the “shelter in place” order did not have any idea what was going on.
Videos posted to social media captured sirens wailing as students and faculty barricaded themselves in dorms, bathrooms, classrooms, and gyms across the sprawling grounds.
Videos show students jumping from windows and hiding under desks during UNC shooting
Graduate students says it was ‘surreal seeing the mass panic,’ after hourslong lockdown
2019 shooting at different UNC campus left two people dead
Harrowingly, the horror on Monday was a somewhat familiar sight for the UNC community coming four years after a mass shooting at the Charlotte campus.
Back on 30 April 2019 – on the last day of the spring semester classes – two people were killed and four injured in a mass shooting inside a classroom in the Woodford A. Kennedy Building.
The gunman – identified as former UNCC student Trystan Andrew Terrell – was arrested soon after.
In September 2019, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced life without the possibility of parole.
Students march demanding gun control after campus shooting
Hundreds of students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill marched in a rally, demanding that lawmakers address gun violence across the state.
Students from different groups, including March For Our Lives and Students Demand Action, participated in the rally while holding up a large banner that read: “This is our reality.”
“In a matter of seconds, we went from taking notes, walking in the quad, being at home, to being forced to run, barricade the doors; there’s nothing normal about returning to school tomorrow,” said Kyle Lumsden, a volunteer with UNC Students Demand Action, according to The News&Observer.
“There’s nothing normal about hearing from people, ‘Thoughts and prayers,’ and the continuous idea that we cannot prevent these tragedies.”
Mitchell Pinsky, a UNC graduate student and member of Students Demand Action, added: “We can’t even make it a full two weeks without gun violence wreaking havoc on our campus.”
UNC students march demanding gun control
PICTURED: Alleged shooter Tailei Qi appears in court
He moaned about work, ‘bullies’ and his head of lab online. Then police say he shot dead a UNC faculty member
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.
“Bully in america seems to be a problem. It often comes with people not stopping them at the first time,” he wrote in one post in August 2022.
But – despite the complaints – the messages could not prepare anyone for the horror of what happened next.
The Independent’s Rachel Sharp reports:
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