Media Can't Memory-Hole Wuhan-Educated UNC Chapel Hill Killer
No hint of a motive has been released.
At 1pm Monday, August 28, police were called to the Caudil Lab on the UNC Chapel Hill campus for a report of shots fired. Students were locked down for over three hours as police searched the campus and surrounding areas for the suspect after one faculty member was killed. Police refused to positively ID the suspect or the victim Monday night; however, after the UNC Police had posted a photo of a “person of interest” and warned people not to approach him on their Twitter account, the entire internet quickly found the guy’s name and details.
Tuesday, local media obtained court documents that positively confirmed the ID of the shooter, as well as his victim, Assistant Professor Zijie Yan. The court hearing revealed that the guy had walked into the lab, shot his professor with a 9mm, and left. He was found in a neighborhood just off campus, about a mile away from the lab.
Ordinarily, this event would be memory-holed fairly quickly. The shooter is Asian, there is only one victim who is also Asian, so it doesn’t fit the usual media narrative. The detail that made everyone sit up and take notice of this event was where the shooter went to school before he landed in UNC’s graduate program - Wuhan University.
After the global pandemic, the very mention of Wuhan is enough to trigger a deep-seated feeling of distrust. However, a perusal of the shooter’s social media (before it was yeeted), it seems like he may have been struggling with bullies, girl problems, and feeling overworked.
It’s hard to gauge exactly what was going on, in part because English is clearly his second language but also because he went through and deleted a bunch of tweets. So far, no hint of a motive has been released, not even after the shooter’s court appearance. The gun used has not been found either. It is currently unknown how the shooter procured his weapon, especially since, as John Lott wrote for CPRC, “non-immigrant aliens,” like someone on a Student Visa, are not allowed to buy firearms.
Meanwhile, the academic community is mourning one of their own. Zijie Yan has been described as selfless, determined, sweet, focused, and a great cook who left behind two young children. According to reports on Twitter from local media, the professor in the office next to him tried to comfort him as he died. There was a moment of silence held, and the bell tower rang in his honor at 1:02 pm Wednesday.
UNC System President Peter Hans said in a news release:
“Dr. Zijie Yan was a good man and a dedicated scholar, and he was senselessly killed while doing his job. I join everyone in the Carolina community in condemning this act of violence and standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Dr. Yan’s family, friends, students, and colleagues.”
Lorraine Yuriar is a wife, mother, and a lifelong conservative, currently stuck in a very blue state.