On August 28, local time, Qi Tailei, a 34-year-old Chinese student and doctoral student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was suspected of shooting and killing his Chinese mentor Yan Zijie in the laboratory. On the 29th, Qi Tailei was charged with first-degree murder and possession of firearms in the school, and appeared in court for the first time.
School Sheriff Brian James said that Qi Tailei walked into the laboratory on the 28th and shot and killed his instructor Yan Zijie, and the police had not yet found the pistol that Qi Tailei used when he committed the crime. Qi Tailei's motives for committing the crime and whether he legally obtained firearms have not yet been announced.
Mr. Qi was charged with first-degree murder and possession of firearms in school
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the United States confirmed that the victim was Yan Zijie, an associate professor in the university's Department of Applied Physical Sciences, who was the academic mentor of the suspect Qi Tailei. The two have co-authored research papers in the past (one published last month) and have worked closely together as members of the department's research group over the past year. School Sheriff Brian James said that Qi Tailei walked into the laboratory on the 28th and shot and killed his instructor Yan Zijie, and the police had not yet found the 9mm pistol that Qi Tailei used when he committed the crime.
Qi Tailei appeared in court for the first time on the afternoon of the 29th local time, and he was charged with two crimes: first-degree murder and illegal entry into the campus with a gun, and the maximum sentence is death. In the first trial, Qi Tailei did not resist. He was dressed in an orange prison uniform and glasses, and when the interpreter told him that the maximum penalty was death, Mr. Qi simply nodded. District Attorney Jeff Nieman said one of his own campaign promises was to oppose the death penalty, so his office would not seek Qi Tailei's death sentence.
According to Dahe.com previously reported, Qi Tailei's growth road has been bumpy: he was born in Dasha Village, Fengqiu County, Henan Province, his family lives on 6 acres of land, his father has long-term kidney disease, and in 2010 he still had to worry about the tuition fees of his two children's college. Qi Tailei repeated his third year of high school and was finally admitted to the Department of Physics of Wuhan University, where he worked in two different research institutes in China. He then went to Louisiana State University for a master's degree and the University of North Carolina for a Ph.D.
Yan Zijie (second from left) and Qi Tailei (third from right).
The victim, Yan Zijie, an associate professor of Chinese descent, is a native of Jingmen, Hubei Province. According to Kevin Guskewicz, president of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Yan Zijie has two young children.
It is reported that in 2005, Yan Zijie obtained a double degree in computer and materials engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology. He published 17 papers during his Ph.D., conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Chicago, and served as an assistant professor at Clarkson University in New York. Since 2019, he has taught at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and "people around him have a relatively high opinion of Yan Zijie. ”
Yan's former academic advisor, Doug Krish, recalls that Yan "often helped his lab mates and never thought about what he would get in return."
Chen Nanhu, who has been studying for a PhD with Yan Zijie since 2008, remembers his old classmate and said: "He was always a sunny and gentle person, full of smiles... I was particularly heartbroken to learn that Dr. Yan had been worried about the mental condition of his students. Chen added that what Yan did and hoped for during his lifetime "is to ensure that his students have an efficient and stable study time while studying at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill." ”
Qi Tailei's next trial is scheduled for September 18. On social media, Qi Tailei had repeatedly tweeted complaints before the incident and revealed his dissatisfaction with the research work and life situation.
Red Star News previously reported:
Chinese students on American campus suspected of shooting and killing their mentor Uncle in his hometown: He was mentally normal and did not return when his parents died
A Chinese student was arrested in a shooting murder in a US university: he posted about bullying, and the last post said that he wanted to make new friends
Red Star News reporter Deng Shuyi
Edited by Guo Zhuang Edited by Ren Zhijiang
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