By Sharon Bernstein
(Reuters) – A University of North Carolina graduate student has been charged in the fatal shooting on Monday of a professor at the school’s Chapel Hill campus, the university said on Tuesday.
Court records show Tailei Qi, age 34 according to media reports, was charged with first-degree murder and carrying a gun on an educational campus in the shooting of Zijie Yan, an associate professor in applied physical sciences at the school since 2019.
A university website showed Qi was a doctoral student who had joined Yan’s research group in January 2022.
It was not immediately clear what prompted the shooting in a campus lab on Monday afternoon. Reports of shots fired prompted an hours-long lockdown at the school, which has a student population of about 32,000, along with about 4,100 faculty and 9,000 staff members.
Public schools nearby also were locked down on their first day of class after summer break.
On Tuesday, the university said it had set up a hotline for students and faculty who needed to talk about the incident as well as those who need other counseling services.
“We know that the wounds of this tragedy will not heal quickly,” Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz said in an email announcing Yan’s death to the campus community.
He said the university would ring the campus bell tower and hold a moment of silence on Wednesday afternoon in Yan’s honor.
(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
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