Killing of Zijie Yan

On the afternoon of Monday, August 28, 2023, a week into the fall semester at the University of North Carolina, Qi drove to campus and went into the Caudill Labs chemistry building.[17] According to UNC Police chief Brian James, Qi went straight to Yan and shot and killed him, then immediately left the building and walked off campus.[16][17] At 1:02 p.m., a 9-1-1 caller reported gunfire at Caudill Labs, identifying Qi by name and describing his clothing and the direction he went.[17][18][19] The Alert Carolina warning system activated at 1:03 p.m., sounding sirens across campus and sending emails and text messages ordering people to shelter indoors.[17][20]

Some students locked or barricaded themselves in classrooms or closets, while teaching continued in some classes.[21][22] Rumors on social media inflated the number of reported shooters or victims.[22] While searching for Qi, UNC Police briefly mistakenly detained another Asian man near the site of the shooting.[23][24] At 2:21 p.m., a 9-1-1 caller reported someone matching Qi's police description in the woods near their house on Williams Circle, in a residential area about two miles (3 km) north of campus.[22] The Chapel Hill Police Department arrested Qi on Williams Circle around 2:31–2:38 p.m.[17][22] Alert Carolina issued an "all clear" order at 4:15 p.m., after police spent some time searching unsuccessfully for the gun used in the shooting.[17][21][25]

On August 29, Qi was charged with two felonies, first-degree murder and possessing a weapon on school property, and held without bail at the Orange County Jail in Hillsborough.[11][17] On September 19, at a hearing in superior court at the Orange County Courthouse, Qi's attorneys requested that he undergo a competency evaluation in the case and Qi requested new attorneys to represent him. The judge set a new court date tentatively for November 14.[26]

Memorial at the Morehead-Patterson Bell Tower

University classes were cancelled through Wednesday, August 30.[22] On the night of August 29, several first-year students organized a candlelit vigil outside of Carolina Union attended by hundreds of people.[27] Further remembrances took place on August 30.[28] The Morehead-Patterson Bell Tower rang in honor of Yan at 1:02 p.m., and hundreds of people gathered there to observe a moment of silence; flowers, letters, and other items were laid in memorial at the base of the bell tower.[17][29] The front page of the Daily Tar Heel student newspaper, depicting text messages sent and received by students during the lockdown, went viral on social media.[30][31] University chapters of March for Our Lives, Young Democrats, and Students Demand Action held a gun control rally at South Building.[31][32][33] In the evening, about 5,000 people attended a candlelit vigil at the Dean Smith Center, where chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz and other faculty members spoke in Yan's memory.[8][29][34] North Carolina Asian-American groups held a vigil at the Cary Arts Center in Cary on September 6.[35][36]

The university entered into an unrelated lockdown two weeks later on September 13. Police arrested a former temporary worker for university housekeeping who had reportedly brandished a firearm toward a worker at the Alpine Bagel café in the student union building; there were no gunshots.[37][38][39]