A faculty member was shot and killed in a campus building and a suspect has been arrested after reports on Monday afternoon of shots fired at the University of North Carolina, school officials have said.
Reports earlier of an apparent shooting at UNC’s flagship campus had led students and faculty to barricade themselves in dorm rooms, offices and classrooms for hours until a lockdown was lifted.
About three hours after warning students to seek shelter indoors and avoid windows, the school posted on X, formerly known as Twitter: “All clear. All clear. Resume normal activities.”
Despite releasing little information at the time, state governor Roy Cooper had 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”, amid reports that suspect was at large.
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.
On Monday evening, Kevin Guskiewicz, UNC’s chancellor issued a statement to the community, saying he is “devastated and saddened” by the shooting. “This shooting damages the trust and safety that we so often take for granted on our campus. We will work to rebuild that trust and safety,” Guskiewicz said.
All classes and campus events for the remainder of Monday and for Tuesday have been cancelled, according to the statement.
Guskiewicz expressed condolences to the victim and their family and offered support to students, faculty and staff.
The shooting came just two days after a gunman perpetrated what law enforcement described as a racially-motivated killing in Jacksonville, Florida, where the shooter opened fire and killed thee Black people at a discount store after being turned away from the campus of a nearby historically Black university.
Monday’s UNC lockdown paralyzed campus and parts of the surrounding town of Chapel Hill a week after classes began at the public university, which has approximately 20,000 undergraduate students and 12,000 graduate students.
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.
