The suspect who was wanted in connection with the shooting death of a professor at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill on Monday afternoon has been brought into custody, but the weapon and the purpose for the killing are still unclear.
After hours of being placed on lockdown, the educational institution that has more than 30,000 pupils is still unable to determine who was shot or who was the shooter in the early afternoon incident. The suspect was taken into custody around one hour and ninety minutes after the shooting incident that caused the school’s Caudill Laboratories (a center for chemical research) to be evacuated.
The Chief of Police at the University of North Carolina, Brian James, addressed the media on Monday evening and said, “We want to ensure that we gather every piece of evidence to determine exactly what happened here today and why it happened.” The detectives have said that “it is too early in this investigation to know a motive for the shooting.”
He claimed that it is essential for the investigators to have a conversation with the suspect in order to discover anything about the motive.
James said that neither the legality of the pistol used in the event nor the location of the gun had been established at the time of his statement.
The officials claim that nobody else was wounded in the incident.
This loss is incalculable, and the shooting has severely damaged the feeling of safety on campus that the vast majority of us have come to take for granted. The Chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Kevin Guskiewicz, has made a commitment to work toward reestablishing the community’s trust in one another and its sense of safety.
James observed that it was unclear if the offender and the victim had any prior connection to one another.
It is his expectation that this information will be obtained via interviews with the suspect and any prospective witnesses.
The officials have declared that all courses and activities scheduled for Monday and Tuesday would be canceled. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the flagship campus of the 17-school University of North Carolina system, is now in the midst of the second week of the fall semester.
The campus police sent a warning to students via email just after one in the afternoon, instructing them to immediately take cover, shut any outdoor doors and windows, and wait for further instructions. CNN reports that an eyewitness on the school saw armed police officers searching the campus as the students were confined inside their building.
WRAL-TV, a CNN affiliate, captured on camera a large number of police vehicles on campus that were equipped with flashing lights. Emerging from the surrounding buildings at various moments was a single-file line of persons brandishing firearms high in the air.
According to James, who was interviewed by the police before the perpetrator was found, the authorities first detained one person; however, it was “very quickly” proven that this person was not the gunman.
According to Guskiewicz, the individual was taken into custody at about 2:30 in the afternoon. After the suspect was captured, James told the media that the campus remained on lockdown for a few more hours as authorities worked to verify that they had the correct individual and find the weapon that was used. James said that the weapon was a handgun.
There are over 32,000 students registered at the college, and there are over 9000 employees working there to serve those students.
According to reports, the FBI is assisting the police in gathering evidence.
After the incident at UNC, the total number of school shootings in the United States this year has reached 49, with 34 taking place on the grounds of elementary and secondary schools and 15 taking place at postsecondary institutions such as universities.