Killing of Zijie Yan

On the afternoon of Monday, August 28, 2023, Zijie Yan, an associate professor in the Department of Applied Physical Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was shot and killed inside the Caudill Labs chemistry building on campus. Yan, 38 or 39, was from Jingmen, Hubei Province, China. He held dual bachelor's degrees from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, a PhD from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and had worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago and an assistant professor at Clarkson University before joining UNC in 2019. He ran a lab conducting nanoparticle research using optical tweezers, lived in Apex, North Carolina, and had two young daughters. Colleagues described him as warm and enthusiastic about his research.

The suspect, 34-year-old Tailei Qi, was one of three PhD students in Yan's research group, which he had joined in January 2022. Qi was raised in a farming family in Fengqiu County, Henan Province, China, and held a bachelor's degree from Wuhan University and a master's degree from Louisiana State University. In late 2022 he had posted cryptic social media messages expressing frustration about his workplace atmosphere; co-workers described him as quiet but friendly.

According to UNC Police Chief Brian James, Qi drove to campus, entered Caudill Labs, went directly to Yan, shot him, and then left the building and walked off campus. A 911 call reporting gunfire came in at 1:02 p.m., and the university's Alert Carolina system activated a minute later, prompting a campus-wide lockdown lasting about three hours. Students sheltered in classrooms and closets while some teaching continued elsewhere. Police briefly and mistakenly detained another Asian man near the shooting scene while searching for the suspect. A second 911 call around 2:21 p.m. reported someone matching Qi's description near Williams Circle, about two miles north of campus, and the Chapel Hill Police Department arrested him there around 2:31–2:38 p.m. An "all clear" was issued at 4:15 p.m. after an unsuccessful search for the weapon.

Qi was charged on August 29, 2023, with first-degree murder and possessing a weapon on school property, and held without bail at the Orange County Jail. At a September 19, 2023 hearing, his attorneys requested a competency evaluation. On November 27, 2023, he was found unfit for trial due to untreated schizophrenia and was ordered to receive psychiatric treatment at Central Regional Hospital in Butner, North Carolina. On March 25, 2026, he was found competent to stand trial, and his defense indicated it would pursue a possible insanity plea. The district attorney, Jeff Nieman, said he would not seek the death penalty; if convicted, Qi faces a mandatory sentence of life without parole.

Classes were cancelled through August 30, 2023, and the university held multiple vigils, including a candlelight vigil attended by hundreds on August 29 and one attended by about 5,000 people at the Dean Smith Center. Local Asian-American groups held a separate vigil in Cary on September 6, 2023. The case prompted renewed discussion of graduate student mental health and adviser-student relationships within the university.