The fall semester started in many US universities last week. The University of North Carolina was no exception, where the start of studies was overshadowed by an emergency. Read today in USA.ONE:
A teacher was shot dead in the USA
What is known about the identity and motives of the perpetrator?
A university teacher was killed in North Carolina
A 911 call was received around 1 p.m. Monday, Aug. 28, about a shooting outside a chemistry lab in the center of the University of North Carolina campus. Multiple shots were fired in Chapel Hill, killing a faculty member. Law enforcement officers were dispatched immediately.
According to local police Chief Brian James, one faculty member was killed in the shooting.
«Incidents like these undermine the safety and trust we often take for granted,» he said.
Students and faculty barricaded themselves in classrooms and dorms after police warned of an "armed and dangerous person on or near campus". Some students were seen jumping from the windows of the university building. There was no information about possible injuries.
The suspect was detained an hour and a half later, and the university campus was blocked for more than three hours while police searched unsuccessfully for the murder weapon. The identity of the deceased has not yet been revealed. The motives of the attacker are also unknown. Police said it was unclear whether the shooter and his victim knew each other.
The suspect was identified by the media as Tailei Qi, a graduate student at the University of North Carolina who also studied physics at Wuhan University in China and received his master's degree from Louisiana State University in 2021.
Chapel Hill, the oldest public university in the United States, has about 30,000 students. After the incident, all events were canceled the next day, and the head of the university expressed «shock and sadness» in his statement.
The Pew Research Center cites statistics that 60% of US residents believe that it is too easy to purchase a firearm in the United States. According to the Gun Violence Archive, 25,000 people have died in shootings in America since the beginning of 2023. In the first half of the year alone, 421 cases of mass shooting were recorded, 28 of which were classified as mass murders.
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