NC - UNC Chapel Hill shelter-in-place order, armed, dangerous person killed Dr. Zijie Yan, 28 Aug 2023 *arrest*
- Thread starter imstilla.grandma
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My goodness I don't know what exactly he was studying (I read it, but it's still way above my head), but I don't need to understand the specifics to know that NOTHING they were studying or reporting on could be so important to murder someone over it. This truly shows that just about anyone is capable of murder. This is a highly educated man, who had to be brave at one point to move to another country and study for a masters and then a doctoral degree from English speaking universities. It takes an insane amount of bravery to move from everything you've known to pursue education and opportunities in another country. Just based on what he was studying, it shows he is insanely intelligent and very likely could have changed the world with research and using his abilities for good... so murder? I don't get it. We tend to see murders committed for greed, romantic interests/reasons, jealousy or just desperation. I guess sometimes it's just someone really is crazy and has "gone off the deep end" and many school shootings are like that, but they seem more random in nature and the killings are many and without real concern for who or how many. This seems targeted and specific. I will be following for sure to try to understand better. I could be way off and of course this is all my opinions based on what I've read and saw so far.
RickshawFan
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I am a lot less committed to the idea that the perp is either brilliant or brave to come to the US for his education. The latter is not rare at all, especially for SE Asian grad students in science. Arcane subject matter is not testimony to brilliance: pretty much all doctoral students have arcane dissertations, since they have to produce original research. IMO
Students can come to resent their advisers, especially if they are in the way of advancement, job searches, publication. We’ve had this situation before, recently in AZ.
University of Arizona professor killed by former student identified
Thomas Meixner was a professor who headed the department of hydrology and atmospheric sciences, according to his official school bio.
www.cbsnews.com
There are over 385,000 foreign grad students in the US in 2022:
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imstilla.grandma
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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.
www.independent.co.uk
In a message to the UNC campus the day after Zijie Yan was killed, Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz said he had met with Yan’s colleagues and family to express condolences on behalf of the university.
Yan ran a lab with two undergraduate students, one research assistant and three PhD students, including Qi, The News & Observer reported. James said Tuesday police are “still exploring the relationship between” them.
Qi “went directly to the victim and then left Caudill Labs,” James said.
James said Qi’s car was located on campus and impounded, and was being processed by the FBI. James said “all indications” were that Qi fled campus on foot to Williams Circle, where he was apprehended Monday afternoon.
Qi joined the Department of Applied Physical Sciences at UNC Chapel Hill in 2022, after finishing a master’s degree at Louisiana State University. Before that, he completed an undergraduate degree in Physics from Wuhan University in China, according to his lab profile.
He was one of three Ph.D students in the Yan Research group, according to its website. The group studies photonics and material sciences.
On Twitter, Qi posted about his experience as a graduate student.
In one post, he described himself as “very enthusiastic talking about research” and wrote he would “like to make some new friends”. He also described working 60 to 80 hour weeks in the lab.
In an Aug. 18, 2022, tweet, he appeared to describe a conflict within in his lab. “Just have a talk with my PI and get his promise… He should have more experience to handle with these girls and tattletales,” Qi wrote.
A PI, or principal investigator, is often the leader of a research group who PhD students report to.
Two months earlier he tweeted: “Just feel my privacy was insulted. … I was showing the boss I am working instead of interests, devaluing the meaning of my work,” he wrote. “That’s so disgusting. Self-respect block me from working.”
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 students demand action with powerful newspaper front page after shooting
Student newspaper The Daily Tar Heel marked the tragedy with a powerful front page featuring the terrified text messages sent during the shooting
www.independent.co.uk
In a message to the UNC campus the day after Zijie Yan was killed, Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz said he had met with Yan’s colleagues and family to express condolences on behalf of the university.
Yan ran a lab with two undergraduate students, one research assistant and three PhD students, including Qi, The News & Observer reported. James said Tuesday police are “still exploring the relationship between” them.
Qi “went directly to the victim and then left Caudill Labs,” James said.
James said Qi’s car was located on campus and impounded, and was being processed by the FBI. James said “all indications” were that Qi fled campus on foot to Williams Circle, where he was apprehended Monday afternoon.
Qi joined the Department of Applied Physical Sciences at UNC Chapel Hill in 2022, after finishing a master’s degree at Louisiana State University. Before that, he completed an undergraduate degree in Physics from Wuhan University in China, according to his lab profile.
He was one of three Ph.D students in the Yan Research group, according to its website. The group studies photonics and material sciences.
On Twitter, Qi posted about his experience as a graduate student.
In one post, he described himself as “very enthusiastic talking about research” and wrote he would “like to make some new friends”. He also described working 60 to 80 hour weeks in the lab.
In an Aug. 18, 2022, tweet, he appeared to describe a conflict within in his lab. “Just have a talk with my PI and get his promise… He should have more experience to handle with these girls and tattletales,” Qi wrote.
A PI, or principal investigator, is often the leader of a research group who PhD students report to.
Two months earlier he tweeted: “Just feel my privacy was insulted. … I was showing the boss I am working instead of interests, devaluing the meaning of my work,” he wrote. “That’s so disgusting. Self-respect block me from working.”
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RickshawFan
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I am looking at comments Qi wrote that are presented in the Independent. IMO his English is completely inadequate for a grad student at a quality institution. He wouldn't pass undergrad, either: he can't even get the verb endings correct for a regular verb (e.g. the verb for s/he has an -s on the end), he uses basic vocabulary incorrectly, is unfamiliar with tense usage, etc.. It blows my mind he got a masters at LSU????? How in the world????
There's no way he could pass a standard ESL test IMO.
He could have been stalled simply until he improved his English. That's all it would take to set some people off. Thankfully, there aren't TOO many cases of murder, but I can totally see a grad student losing it...
Not to mention his points are immature, inarticulate, and clichéd.
FWIW it would not be unusual for a grad student to be working/studying/researching all their waking hours. It's their life. At my college, we did that as undergrads: my cadre was all elite Ph.D. -bound.
www.independent.co.uk
There's no way he could pass a standard ESL test IMO.
He could have been stalled simply until he improved his English. That's all it would take to set some people off. Thankfully, there aren't TOO many cases of murder, but I can totally see a grad student losing it...
Not to mention his points are immature, inarticulate, and clichéd.
FWIW it would not be unusual for a grad student to be working/studying/researching all their waking hours. It's their life. At my college, we did that as undergrads: my cadre was all elite Ph.D. -bound.
UNC shooting suspect’s Twitter complaints about murdered faculty member revealed
Tailei Qi complained about his head of lab in posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, before Monday’s shooting
www.independent.co.uk
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I am curious what girls he's referring to? Were they also in the lab? His anger seems to be at the PI instead of at the girls. He says the PI should have more experience to handle this.. why would a PI have experience with dealing with tattletales? They are there to do the research and help the students. I wonder what the girls were "tattletaling" about? What he doing something he shouldn't have been with the research or something like that?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 students demand action with powerful newspaper front page after shooting
Student newspaper The Daily Tar Heel marked the tragedy with a powerful front page featuring the terrified text messages sent during the shooting
In a message to the UNC campus the day after Zijie Yan was killed, Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz said he had met with Yan’s colleagues and family to express condolences on behalf of the university.
Yan ran a lab with two undergraduate students, one research assistant and three PhD students, including Qi, The News & Observer reported. James said Tuesday police are “still exploring the relationship between” them.
Qi “went directly to the victim and then left Caudill Labs,” James said.
James said Qi’s car was located on campus and impounded, and was being processed by the FBI. James said “all indications” were that Qi fled campus on foot to Williams Circle, where he was apprehended Monday afternoon.
Qi joined the Department of Applied Physical Sciences at UNC Chapel Hill in 2022, after finishing a master’s degree at Louisiana State University. Before that, he completed an undergraduate degree in Physics from Wuhan University in China, according to his lab profile.
He was one of three Ph.D students in the Yan Research group, according to its website. The group studies photonics and material sciences.
On Twitter, Qi posted about his experience as a graduate student.
In one post, he described himself as “very enthusiastic talking about research” and wrote he would “like to make some new friends”. He also described working 60 to 80 hour weeks in the lab.
In an Aug. 18, 2022, tweet, he appeared to describe a conflict within in his lab. “Just have a talk with my PI and get his promise… He should have more experience to handle with these girls and tattletales,” Qi wrote.
A PI, or principal investigator, is often the leader of a research group who PhD students report to.
Two months earlier he tweeted: “Just feel my privacy was insulted. … I was showing the boss I am working instead of interests, devaluing the meaning of my work,” he wrote. “That’s so disgusting. Self-respect block me from working.”
I bet it's only a matter of time before the police find the gun. Unless he had help (which I highly doubt), then the gun can only be in so many places especially if they think he walked away from the building and then was taken into custody after that. He couldn't have went so far that they don't know where to look. I think it's just a matter of retracing any of his likely steps and then looking through trash, buildings, etc and finding it.
I am also curious where he could have gotten a gun. He doesn't seem like he had any friends, let alone ones that might get their hands on a 9mm for him. I don't think he could purchase one legally being a student here and not a US citizen. It really doesn't leave many places unless he stole it from somewhere/someone. I'm curious if he had any roommates or if there was an organization or club or something on campus that connected students from other countries. Maybe a connection there or something.
Hoosgirl
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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.
(snip)
Carter Scott, a UNC grad student and former classmate of Qi's, spoke with WRAL News about working on a project together with Qi.
"I would have never guessed that he would be the kind of person who could possibly be capable of this kind of thing," Scott said. "He was always very quiet."
Scott added that Qi didn't seem rude in his interactions with him, but he struggled to communicate and speak clear English.
"In hindsight, I would guess he probably didn’t have a very good network here. I get the impression he went to another university out of the country. So he was very new. Very out of his element. Very quiet. So I can see a situation where he didn’t have that many people close to him," said Scott.
www.google.com
(snip)
Carter Scott, a UNC grad student and former classmate of Qi's, spoke with WRAL News about working on a project together with Qi.
"I would have never guessed that he would be the kind of person who could possibly be capable of this kind of thing," Scott said. "He was always very quiet."
Scott added that Qi didn't seem rude in his interactions with him, but he struggled to communicate and speak clear English.
"In hindsight, I would guess he probably didn’t have a very good network here. I get the impression he went to another university out of the country. So he was very new. Very out of his element. Very quiet. So I can see a situation where he didn’t have that many people close to him," said Scott.
UNC fatal shooting suspect was doctoral student
Tailei Qi, a doctoral student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was taken into custody on Monday afternoon in connection with the fatal shooting of a UNC faculty member.
www.google.com
x_files
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It sounds like he felt bullied by a group of bullies, and his lab PI did nothing to stop it.
It could be true or he was harassing females in the lab and they complained about his behavior. I wish someone would come forward with more info.
x_files
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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.
(snip)
Carter Scott, a UNC grad student and former classmate of Qi's, spoke with WRAL News about working on a project together with Qi.
"I would have never guessed that he would be the kind of person who could possibly be capable of this kind of thing," Scott said. "He was always very quiet."
Scott added that Qi didn't seem rude in his interactions with him, but he struggled to communicate and speak clear English.
"In hindsight, I would guess he probably didn’t have a very good network here. I get the impression he went to another university out of the country. So he was very new. Very out of his element. Very quiet. So I can see a situation where he didn’t have that many people close to him," said Scott.
UNC fatal shooting suspect was doctoral student
Tailei Qi, a doctoral student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was taken into custody on Monday afternoon in connection with the fatal shooting of a UNC faculty member.
Mental Health issues plus isolation, zero friends and/or support groups is a huge RED FLAG.
It's too bad each student's sm accounts aren't monitored for signs of distress or a breakdown.
imstilla.grandma
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Professor Yan earned a 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.
He was originally from the Hubei Province in central China, and obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China, the news site nny360.com reported in 2015. 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.
www.nytimes.com
He was originally from the Hubei Province in central China, and obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China, the news site nny360.com reported in 2015. 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.
U.N.C. Graduate Student Is Charged in Fatal Shooting of Professor
Tailei Qi, 34, was charged with first-degree murder in the killing of Zijie Yan, an associate professor in the applied physical sciences department, inside a campus lab on Monday.
RickshawFan
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Snipped
I would guess the "girls" are female colleagues. I would also guess that "tattletale" is not being used precisely (this guy's English is terrible), and he got it out of a thesaurus or old-fashioned gossip magazine with a column from Dear Abby. I would suggest his female colleagues had reported something or other to their faculty-lead that could threaten the perp's ambitions.
Every sentence this guy wrote that I've seen published gives me the creeps. I'd be complaining to the boss about sexist disrespect for colleagues, even if nothing more nefarious transpired.
In the US , guns are everywhere. No problem getting hold of one, even if you aren't qualified. You can even build one from a kit.
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RickshawFan
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This has his mentor's perspectives on the victim. To add: Yan moved remarkably quickly up the tenured ranks.
www.wral.com
UNC faculty member killed in shooting said he had a troubled student
WRAL News spoke to a man who says he was a mentor to the UNC faculty member shot to death on campus Tuesday.
www.wral.com
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Liviu Librescu's students would likely disagree with you:
Liviu Librescu
Dr. Librescu, a Holocaust survivor, directed students out the window and stopped Virginia Tech shooter in the doorway of his classroom.
All Dr. Librescu's lived. All of them, because Dr. Librescu resisted the shooter. (One broke an ankle in the fall iirc.)
My younger sister's husband earned his PhD in engineering at Virginia Tech & taught there. They knew Dr. Librescu.
One of the Sandy Hook teachers hid her students in the coat closets and asked them to be silent. She then told the shooter that her class was in the gym.
Both teachers resisted the shooters and saved the lives of their students.
Both teachers did pay with their own lives, imho made that choice to protect their students.
Resistance works imho.
jmho ymmv lrr
Vaderman
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That's actually a part of the training that really ticked me off. They mentioned the Virginia Tech Massacre and that particular professor and how we should stay away from barricaded doors; essentially shaming him for losing his life by staying in front of the door.Liviu Librescu's students would likely disagree with you:
Liviu Librescu
www.weremember.vt.edu
Dr. Librescu, a Holocaust survivor, directed students out the window and stopped Virginia Tech shooter in the doorway of his classroom.
All Dr. Librescu's lived. All of them, because Dr. Librescu resisted the shooter. (One broke an ankle in the fall iirc.)
My younger sister's husband earned his PhD in engineering at Virginia Tech & taught there. They knew Dr. Librescu.
One of the Sandy Hook teachers hid her students in the coat closets and asked them to be silent. She then told the shooter that her class was in the gym.
Both teachers resisted the shooters and saved the lives of their students.
Both teachers did pay with their own lives, imho made that choice to protect their students.
Resistance works imho.
jmho ymmv lrr
I was a college freshman (at another institution) during the Virginia Tech massacre. I vividly remember waking up that morning and reading the news, as I was wont to do. There was a news report about two students found dead on that campus. I thought it was sad, but assumed it was a lover's quarrel. When I got back to my dorm from breakfast, the news was updated saying 33 students were killed. It shook me. My dorm was right by the stairwell, and every time a stairwell slammed shut, I'd jump.
We received free copies of the USA Today in our dining hall, and I remember sobbing, reading the story about Dr. Librescru's heroism.
The training we received shamed that brave man and strongly discouraged us to do exactly what he did to save his students.
Edited to correct grammar.
Hoosgirl
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Some little bright spots in the tragedy:
www.dailytarheel.com
Parents, campus community support students following lockdown
Community members, parents and alumni gathered on Tuesday to provide support to students through food, hugs and dogs.
www.dailytarheel.com
It's odd to me that the gun hasn't yet been found. How was he able to dispose of it so quickly? Chapel Hill is not large as a town and he was arrested a couple of miles away. I believe I read that his car was still on campus (I'll look for the link). He would have had to have left his phone at home as LE would have known his exact path by now, right? IMO MOO
ETA: (My husband is a professor there and was locked-down. His lab is across the campus from where this happened. We know this area well.)
ETA: (My husband is a professor there and was locked-down. His lab is across the campus from where this happened. We know this area well.)
Curious_in_NC
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I agree. His published utterings in English are barely understandable. That may be why he left his previous institution with a Masters. In the physical sciences, prospective PhD students who do poorly in their coursework and/or graduate teaching duties, often are re-directed to leave with an MS. [edit: to be clear this is just speculation by me] Unfortunately this doesn't count much as "credit" at another institution, apart from counting some prerequisite course credits. An incoming MS student would likely still need 3-5 years of research to gain a PhD elysewhere.I am looking at comments Qi wrote that are presented in the Independent. IMO his English is completely inadequate for a grad student at a quality institution. He wouldn't pass undergrad, either: he can't even get the verb endings correct for a regular verb (e.g. the verb for s/he has an -s on the end), he uses basic vocabulary incorrectly, is unfamiliar with tense usage, etc.. It blows my mind he got a masters at LSU????? How in the world????
There's no way he could pass a standard ESL test IMO.
He could have been stalled simply until he improved his English. That's all it would take to set some people off. Thankfully, there aren't TOO many cases of murder, but I can totally see a grad student losing it...
Not to mention his points are immature, inarticulate, and clichéd.
FWIW it would not be unusual for a grad student to be working/studying/researching all their waking hours. It's their life. At my college, we did that as undergrads: my cadre was all elite Ph.D. -bound.
UNC shooting suspect’s Twitter complaints about murdered faculty member revealed
Tailei Qi complained about his head of lab in posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, before Monday’s shooting
That said, he and his advisor had already co-authored a paper with Qi as first author. So he was making impressive progress as a second year grad student. They likely communicated in Chinese in the lab and in the finer points of writing the paper.
I don't see that this tragedy fits with the more common scenario where a grad student and their mentor disagree on their readiness to graduate, eventually escalating to violence. Sadly this seems to be more of a mental illness issue than a dispute of that nature.
ETA Link to publications: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Tailei-Qi-2/research
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jennytrevor
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As someone who graduated a few years ago from a NC university and has lots of familiarity with UNC, his level of English skill is completely normal to encounter with international graduate students. I was a stats minor and would occasionally go to office hours. All of the TAs were Asian PhD students and were often incredibly difficult to understand, with quirks in their speech that seem similar to his tweets. I believe those are common grammatical problems for those with an Asian language as their first language. There are labs/working groups at universities where most people are Chinese and speak Chinese commonly at work. I know someone who worked in such a place.
I am very interested to see what else comes out as far as personal disputes, etc. Obviously Qi did not have any kind of healthy work-life balance, putting in 60-80 hour weeks.
I am very interested to see what else comes out as far as personal disputes, etc. Obviously Qi did not have any kind of healthy work-life balance, putting in 60-80 hour weeks.
RickshawFan
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IME a "terminal masters" is a standard technique for disqualifying a grad student from a Ph.D. program in general, not just science.