Report: Former LSU student “person of interest” in UNC shooting

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WAFB) - A faculty member is dead after a Monday afternoon shooting at the University of North Carolina’s flagship campus in Chapel Hill, television station WRAL reported.

The station also reported that a “person of interest” in the shooting had been taken into custody. The station identified that person as Tailei Qi, who the station reported as a current UNC grad student and former student at LSU in Baton Rouge.

“According to our records, Tailei Qi was last enrolled at LSU in Fall 2021 and graduated with a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering in December of 2021,” LSU Media Relations Coordinator Abbi Rocha Laymoun said. “He has not been affiliated with the university since,” Laymoun added.

UNC sent an alert out early Monday afternoon warning students to seek shelter indoors and avoid windows.

About two hours later, the school posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, “All clear. All clear. Resume normal activities.”

Although school officials and local authorities didn’t provide details about the reported shooting, Gov. Roy Cooper posted on X that he had spoken to the Orange County sheriff and the state’s public safety secretary and “pledged all state resources needed to capture the shooter and protect the UNC campus.”

About two hours after the first alert went out, officers were still arriving in droves, with about 50 police vehicles at the scene and multiple helicopters circling over the school.

The report of the shooting and subsequent lockdown paralyzed campus and parts of the surrounding town of Chapel Hill a week after classes began at the state’s flagship public university. The university has approximately 20,000 undergraduate students and 12,000 graduate students.

During the lockdown, a student told TV station WTVD that she had barricaded her dormitory door with her furniture. Another student, speaking softly, described hiding in fear with others in a dark bathroom.

Adrian Lanier, a sophomore computer science major, told The Associated Press that he was in a campus gym when the first safety alert was issued. He said he and others sat against a wall, trying to stay as far away as possible from the doors and windows. He sheltered in place for a couple of hours as rumors spread across campus about what was happening.

“No one really felt safe enough to leave. I didn’t,” Lanier said.

The Associated Press contributed heavily to this report. Associated Press writers Gary Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina, Sarah Brumfield in Silver Spring, Maryland, Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia, and Sarah Rankin in Richmond, Virginia, contributed to this report.

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