Within the span of ten months, there have been over fifty school shootings in the U.S. Practicing lockdown procedures has become an integral part of school routines to prepare for the instance of an intruder entering a school intending harm. Such a situation took place at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) campus on August 28.
The incident began with a report of a shooting and lockdown beginning at 1:03 pm. The lockdown included instructions directing people to shelter in place due to the presence of a dangerous person on campus. Students and faculty remained in lockdown for several hours. A suspect was taken into custody by UNC police at 2:31 pm; he was then identified as Tailei Qi. Although the suspect had been taken into custody, the police were hesitant to give out any information as they needed to ensure that they had the right person. During this time, the hold-in-place continued. Once taken into custody, a photo of Qi was posted on platform X (formerly Twitter), labeling him as a “person of interest.” The lockdown was lifted at 4:15 pm.
The victim of the shooting was Zijie Yan, an associate professor who had been working in the Applied Sciences Department for the past four years. Many have questioned Qi’s motives behind this crime, and although the police have not identified them, there have been many speculations. Aidan Carter Scott, a computer science major at UNC, gave information about Qi to provide background knowledge to those who were unaware. In an NBC News article entitled “UNC-Chapel Hill Graduate Student Charged with Murder in Shooting of Faculty Member,” Scott discussed that “Yan had been one of [the] suspect’s advisers” and “Qi struggled to keep up with the course material.”
In a New York Times article entitled “U.N.C Graduate Student Is Charged in Fatal Shooting of Professor,” Brian James, Chief of Police at the UNC campus, discussed the prior relationship between Professor Yan and Qi. James reported that the two “knew each other, and the suspect went directly to the victim and then left Caudill Labs.”
Qi is being charged with first-degree murder and being held without bond. He has also been charged with possession of a gun on an educational property. According to a Sept. 19 article on The Daily Tar Heel entitled “Tailei Qi Appears before Superior Court,” District Attorney Jeff Nieman will be seeking the death penalty for Qi in this case. If found guilty, the first-degree murder charge carries the maximum sentence of the death penalty and a minimum sentence of life without parole.
School shootings have become an increasingly prevalent matter in the past decade. Many students and parents have been advocating and marching for stricter gun laws and regulations to prevent these occurrences in the future.
In response to the shooting, junior Caitlin Liu said, “It is a really sad and frustrating situation, and the fact that these school shootings are happening so often is concerning.” Many have emphasized that school shootings should not be considered a “norm” in society. Junior Gillian Greenberg emphasized how “more laws and restrictions need to be placed in order for our country to be safe again.”
