A graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has been charged in the fatal shooting of one of his professors on Monday, a killing that spread fear across the campus and forced an hourslong lockdown, according to court documents.
The student, Tailei Qi, 34, was charged with first-degree murder and possession of a firearm on educational property in the killing of Zijie Yan, an associate professor in the applied physical sciences department, inside a campus lab, according to court documents filed in Orange County Court in Hillsborough, N.C.
Mr. Qi made a brief appearance in court on Tuesday afternoon and was ordered held without bond until his next court appearance on Sept. 18. The lawyer who represented him did not immediately respond to an email and phone call seeking comment. The court documents did not describe a motive for the fatal shooting.
Mr. Qi, a doctoral student in applied physical sciences, was one of three graduate students in Professor Yan’s research group and was a co-author of at least two research papers with him, according to the group’s website. Mr. Qi joined the group in January 2022, the website said.
Professor Yan obtained his Ph.D. in materials engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and joined the U.N.C. faculty in the applied physical sciences department in 2019, according to a university website. His research interests included optical trapping and manipulation, holography, microfluidics and nanomaterials.
Kevin M. Guskiewicz, chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said on Tuesday that the university planned to ring the campus bell tower and observe a moment of silence at 1:02 p.m. on Wednesday in honor of Professor Yan.
“He was a beloved colleague, mentor and friend to many on our campus,” Dr. Guskiewicz said in a message to the campus community. “Please join me in thinking and praying for his family and loved ones during this difficult time.”
Mr. Qi grew up in a small village in Henan Province in central China, according to a 2010 local media report profiling him and his younger brother for achieving identical high scores on the country’s national college entrance examination.
The story highlighted how his family relied on farming six acres as their only source of income and how the two brothers helped their parents with heavy labor.
The report also stated that the family was worried about paying college tuition for the two sons because Mr. Qi’s father suffered from liver disease and his mother had leg problems.
At a news conference on Monday evening, Brian James, chief of police at U.N.C.’s Chapel Hill campus, said that the police received a 911 call reporting that shots had been fired at Caudill Labs at about 1 p.m.
Soon after, the university sent an alert advising people in the area to go inside and to stay away from windows. The university warned of an “armed, dangerous person on or near campus.”
Across the campus, students barricaded themselves in bathrooms, classrooms and dorm rooms.
Nearly an hour and a half later, the university said in another alert that the shelter-in-place order remained in effect and that there was a “suspect at large.”
Jake Diana, a Ph.D. student and teaching assistant, said that he was just about to hold his first class for the semester when, just after 1 p.m., he saw a police car zoom down South Road, near the site of the shooting, and heard campus sirens blaring.
“I was terrified,” he said, adding that he rushed to a nearby conference room with more than a dozen students, where they barricaded the door with a bookcase, switched off the lights, silenced their phones and lay on the ground.
Mr. Diana, 28, said he then texted his friends and family and began praying. “I said to God, I said, ‘I have to get through this.’ I said, ‘I want to do so much with my life.’”
Mr. Qi was taken into custody on Monday at about 2:30 p.m., the authorities said. At 4:14 p.m., the university ended the lockdown and declared that the situation was “all clear.”
Chief James said at the news conference on Monday that the police had not identified a motive or recovered the weapon that was used.
“We really do want to know the ‘why’ in this case and what led to it,” Chief James said.
Dr. Guskiewicz said on Monday that it had been “a truly tragic day for our campus community.”
“This loss is devastating, and the shooting damages the trust and safety that we so often take for granted in our campus community,” he said. “We will work to rebuild that sense of trust and safety within our community.”
Livia Albeck-Ripka and Amanda Holpuch contributed reporting.
