UNC shooting updates: Suspect Tailei Qi complained about professor Zijie Yan online before Chapel Hill attack
Tailei Qi, a PhD student majoring in applied physical sciences major, was arrested on a first-degree murder charge over the deadly shooting at the Chapel Hill campus
independent, 2 hours ago
The graduate student accused of killing his professor in a shooting at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill had complained about the victim online in the lead-up to the attack.
Tailei Qi, a PhD student majoring in applied physical sciences major, was arrested and booked into Orange County Sheriff’s Office jail on a first-degree murder charge on Monday for fatally shooting Zijie Yan, the head of the Department of Applied Sciences and Mr Qi’s academic adviser.
In court on Tuesday, he was ordered to be held without bond and is expected to appear for his next hearing on 18 September.
Authorities said during Mr Qi’s court hearing that a 9mm was used in the shooting.
The motive for the shooting remains unclear but Mr Qi’s social media reveals he had complained grumbled about his head of lab in the lead-up to the shooting.
In other posts, he also railed against hard work, “girls and tattletales” and complained about bullies in the US.
“Bully in america seems to be a problem. It often comes with people not stopping them at the first time,” he wrote in one bizarre post in August 2022, reviewed by The Independent.
UNC Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz described the faculty loss as “devastating” during a Monday press conference, saying, “This shooting damages the trust and safety that we so often take for granted in our campus community.”
Qi, a second-year doctoral student in applied physical sciences, was apprehended on Williams Circle about two miles north of campus at 2:40 p.m. Police surrounded Qi. He sat on a road in front of a driveway in handcuffs before being escorted to a waiting patrol car.
On Tuesday, Qi made his first court appearance and was charged with first-degree murder.
Judge Sherri Murrell read Qi the charges he was facing, including possession of a weapon on educational property and first-degree murder. A public defender will represent Qi. He has no bond and his next hearing was set for Sept. 18, but the date is subject to change depending on the status of the grand jury.
Orange County District Attorney Jeff Nieman said the gun used in the shooting, a 9 mm pistol, has yet to be found. Nieman said he won’t pursue the death penalty in the case, making the maximum possible punishment a sentence of life in prison.
“To actually have the suspect in custody, it gives us an opportunity to either figure out the why and even the how and also helps us to uncover a motive and really just why this happened today,” said UNC-CH Chief of Police Brian James.
“We are looking for a firearm. It is too early to determine if the firearm was legally obtained, and we’re not prepared at this time to what kind of weapon it was.”
The professor killed in the shooting was Qi’s academic advisor. He had recently reached out to a colleague to express concern over a student who had told him about struggling with severe mental illness and delusions, but he did not specify that student was Qi.
Why did Tailei Qi shoot his advisor?
While a motive was not immediately apparent, some digging did find that Tailei Qi in his since-suspended X(Twitter) account, did register complaints about his mentor, professor, and lab leader. In one tweet according to The Independent, he stated “Just have a talk with my PI and get his promise. He should have more experience to handle with these girls and tattletales” with PI believed to refer to Zijie Yan. He also made references to “bullying” in another tweet, also on the since-suspended account. “Bully in america seems to be a problem. It often comes with people not stopping them at the first time.” These tweets came a year prior to this month’s incident, yet are believed to show a pattern of difficulty in Qi’s life and potential disagreements with his mentor, Yan. While the exact motive is yet to be uncovered, even if it is finally revealed, it will most likely prove little consolation to the student body affected by the shooting and the friends and family who mourn Yan’s loss. No one else was physically injured during the shooting, all reports indicate Qi left the building after shooting Yan.
Qi is being charged with first-degree murder and a weapons possession charge, and is currently being held at the Orange County jail. No information has been provided about how Qi’s Chinese citizenship and visa status will affect proceedings.
UNC PhD student Tailei Qi, 34, has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the killing of Zijie Yan, an associate professor in the Department of Applied Physical Sciences and a researcher. Mr Yan was listed as his alleged killer’s academic advisor on Mr Qi’s UNC profile, which has since been removed from the university’s website.
Yan joined UNC in 2019. Before that, he was an assistant professor at Clarkson University in New York and received postdoctoral training at the University of Chicago.
Mr Qi and Yan co-authored several research papers focusing on nanoscience technology. But in tweets from an account believed to belong to Mr Qi, the alleged shooter complained about “bullies and his “PI” – referring to his unnamed head of lab – being unable to handle “these girls and tattletales”.
“Just have a talk with my PI and get his promise. He should have more experience to handle with these girls and tattletales,” he wrote in August 2022.
Two months later in October, he referred to his PI again: “Both the group of people to say I am lazy and that to prove me working hard instead of telling me that are trying to consume my privacy. I judge their motivation is only to tell my PI then control me by taletelling.”
“But it’s weird when I talked about it with my PI, he said no people spoke to him about that. so it’s nothing but some voyeurism for these people?”
Yan studied undergrad at the Hauzhong University of Science and Technology, where he obtained his bachelor’s in material science and engineering and computer science in 2005.
The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where Yan got his master’s in physics electronics, posted a tribute on Tuesday.
“He is remembered fondly by many of us that met him in the classroom, lab, or in the hallway of MRC,” a Facebook post read. “Among other things, he distinguished himself with publishing 17 journal articles in the course of his PhD study…”
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