After using Monday afternoon and evening to reportedly gather evidence, finalize its charges, and contact family members, the UNC Police Department said Tuesday the suspected shooter of a campus faculty member has been publicly identified.
A release from UNC Media Relations and campus police named graduate student and research assistant Tailei Qi as the suspect in Monday’s shooting at Caudill Laboratory. Qi’s photo was released as a person of interest while campus was on lockdown for hours, as UNC Police investigated reports of shots fired and later discovered a deceased faculty member.
While the victim’s name was kept private by the university on Monday in order to contact family members, UNC shared it on Tuesday: Zijie Yan, who had worked for UNC since 2019.
Zijie Yan. (Photo via UNC Department of Applied Physical Sciences.)
“The Carolina community is mourning the loss of Zijie Yan, an associate professor in the Department of Applied Physical Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences who was killed in yesterday’s on-campus shooting,” said the release. “The University is in contact with Yan’s family and is providing resources and support.”
In a message to the UNC campus community on Tuesday sharing the news of Yan’s death, UNC Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz said the university will honor the professor on Wednesday afternoon by ringing the campus bell tower in Yan’s memory at 1:02 p.m. He encouraged the campus to hold a moment of silence at that time.
“[Yan] was a beloved colleague, mentor and friend to many on our campus,” said Guksiewicz. “My leadership team and I have met with his colleagues and family to express our condolences on behalf of our campus. Please join me in thinking and praying for his family and loved ones during this difficult time.”
According to the Yan Research Group’s website, the lab’s goal is to use the technology of light to study how it interacts with matter and physical sciences. Part of its research goals included exploring the feasibility of “nanostructured materials” to be used for energy and health applications. Caudill Labs, where UNC Police said the shooting took place, was dedicated as a chemistry facility in 2007. Qi is listed on the lab’s website as one of its graduate students workers since he’d joined UNC in 2022.
Qi, who the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said is 34 years old, has been charged by the UNC Police Department with first-degree murder and possession of a weapon on educational property, both of which are felony charges. According to his LinkedIn page, Qi moved to UNC after earning a master’s degree from Louisiana State University in the years prior. Before then, he was also a researcher at several institutions in China and earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from Wuhan University in 2015. Orange County District Attorney Jeff Nieman, whose office will try Qi’s case, confirmed that Qi is a Chinese national in the United States through a visa.
During the latest media briefing on Tuesday, UNC Police Chief Brian James said police had established the pair knew each other and that Qi approached Yan directly on Monday afternoon. James said, from there, Qi is believed to have left Caudill Labs and may have traveled on foot to a residence off Williams Circle north of town. While James said on Tuesday that he believed the address to be Qi’s residence, that was later corrected by investigators, who determined Qi was living in Shadowood Apartments — a complex off Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard further north than where Qi was arrested.
“Our UNC Police officers got [to the scene of the crime] very quickly,” said the police chief. “[We] entered Caudill with a team within minutes and we did not locate that suspect at that time. So we know he must have exited that building very quickly right after the incident.”
James had said Monday night that a car parked at the Venable Lot was being impounded as part of the investigation. He clarified Tuesday the vehicle did not appear to have been moved since Monday morning and is being examined by the FBI’s Evidence Response Team. The police chief said until evidence otherwise surfaces, investigators believe Qi may have walked the nearly two miles to Williams Circle.
Audio of a 911 call shared by the Chapel Hill Police Department to media on Wednesday revealed at least one community member in the area of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard — which Williams Circle is off from — calling to report someone they believed to be the suspect walking through their yard and “in the woods behind our house.”
Tailei Qi, 34. (Photo via the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.)
Qi is being held at the Orange County Jail on his charges, according to UNC Police, having been booked at 12:38 a.m. He has not been given bail and made his first appearance in court on the charges Tuesday afternoon. While the murder charge’s maximum penalty could be death if Qi is found guilty, Nieman confirmed that prosecutors will not seek the death penalty in the case.
As a result of the shooting, UNC canceled classes for the rest of Monday after the lockdown was lifted and extended that cancellation through Wednesday. Guskiewicz said during Tuesday’s press conference that normal campus operations will begin again Thursday morning.
“Our goal at Carolina is to build our community together and in the last 24 hours,” the chancellor added in his statement, “I have seen examples of our community and the world around us come together in grief and support of our faculty, staff and students. In this time of profound sadness, let’s continue to build and strengthen our community together.”
The university also set up a hotline for concerned families and community members to call (919-918-1999), while encouraging students to utilize Counseling and Psychological Services and faculty or staff to utilize the Employee Assistance Program.
(Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article stated that Qi’s residence was on Williams Circle, based UNC Police Chief Brian James’ comments. Investigators in the case later clarified that was not true and Qi’s residence is in Shadowood Apartments.)
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It is not correct to show a picture of the alleged killer, or suspect since he was released. What if the suspect is innocent? The public will now be judge before jury. But people are just dying to see, to know, and then trial by media. System must change
Hi there — Qi has not been released by investigating authorities. He is still held under no bond at the Orange County Jail.