Heartwrenching videos show students hiding under desks and jumping from classroom windows during an active shooter situation the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The campus was placed on lockdown for several hours on Monday afternoon after an alert went out about an “armed person”. Police later confirmed one member of the faculty was killed and a suspect, identified as graduate student Tailei Qi, was taken into custody.
The motive for the shooting, which took place at the centre of the campus in one of the science buildings, remains unclear.
Throughout much of the active situation, those under the “shelter in place” order did not have any idea what was going on.
Videos posted to social media captured sirens wailing as students and faculty barricaded themselves in dorms, bathrooms, classrooms, and gyms across the sprawling grounds.
The shelter in place alert was posted just after 1pm, with sirens emitted within two minutes.
Officers found the faculty member, who has not been identified, fatally shot in the lab building, UNC Police Chief Brian James told a press conference.
The suspect was apprehended about 90 minutes after the initial report of gunfire but the lockdown persisted as authorities searched for the weapon, officials told a press at a briefing.
The arrest took place in a residential area close to the campus, according to local TV station WRAL. The lockdown was lifted at about 4.15pm.
It is unclear if the suspect and victim knew each other.
Chief James said: “To actually have the suspect in custody gives us an opportunity to figure out the why and even the how, and also helps us to uncover a motive and really just why this happened today. Why today, why at all?”
“And we want to learn from this incident and we will certainly work to do our best to ensure that this never happens again on the UNC campus,” he added.
Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz said: “This loss is devastating, and the shooting damages the trust and safety that we so often take for granted in our campus community.”
Graduate student Clayton Ulm, 23, said he was in a class with about 50 to 70 others when the lockdown went into action. The alarm went off and screens in the room also announced the order to shelter in place.
“Then there was quite a bit of panic as students were trying to figure out what to do,” Mr Ulm wrote on LinkedIn after three hours of the lockdown, according to the AP. “Then we all started hiding beneath our chairs and under desks. Some students went and locked the doors.”
UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz, left, and UNC Chief of Police Brian James console students who had spent hours on lockdown during an active shooter situation on campus— (AP)
Mr Ulm added that students began listening to police scanners to find out where the shooter was located with the sense of panic eventually subsiding and students could use the restrooms near them.
It was “surreal seeing the mass panic,” Mr Ulm said.
“We are looking for a firearm. It is too early to determine if the firearm was legally obtained,” Chief James said.
The shooting came just a week after the start of classes at the first public university in the US. Tuesday’s classes were cancelled for the school’s 20,000 undergraduates and 12,000 graduate students.
Law enforcement respond to the shooting at the lab building in the centre of the UNC campus— (AP)
Northern Virginia freshman Rushil Umaretiya held a candle outside the lab building on Monday night with two of his friends, just two weeks after he moved to Chapel Hill.
“In my family, whenever someone passes, we light a candle, so I thought I’d come out and pay some respect to the community I’m trying to join,” he told the AP. “It’s a scary time for a lot of people, like I have a lot of history with loss, so I think it’s just fear and a lot of mixed emotions.”
Law enforcement and first responders gather on South Street near the Bell Tower on the campus— (AP)
Mr Ulm moved from Oklahoma to Chapel Hill a couple of months ago. He told the news agency that his mother called him as the students were sheltering in place.
She was “crying profusely,” he said.
“I knew I should’ve texted you yesterday, I was so worried... this was my greatest fear,” she told him.
