'Really nerve - wracking' UNC Student Recall Frightening Moments During Shooting | Dam Abraham Live

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Updated 11 hours ago - News
UNC-Chapel Hill faculty member killed in shooting that left community locked down for hours
Zachery Eanes
Zachery Eanes
Michael Graff

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The bell tower on UNC-Chapel Hill's campus. Credit: Photo: Eros Hoagland/Getty Images

A gunman killed a UNC-Chapel Hill faculty member in a laboratory building in the center of campus Monday, setting off a confusing and anxious three-hour lockdown at the university and nearby K-12 schools.

The latest: Campus officials and police confirmed in a Monday evening press conference that a person was taken into custody, but they did not identify that person or the faculty member who died.

All UNC classes and activities are canceled for Monday night and all day Tuesday.
Zoom out: The shooting at Caudill Labs occurred on the first day of the university's second week of classes. It was also the first day for Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.

The initial 911 call reporting shots fired came in at 1:02pm, UNC Police Chief Brian James said, and lockdowns throughout the community soon followed. UNC didn't issue an all-clear until nearly 4:15pm.
In between, students took to social media to post videos and pictures, police detained and released a person who wound up not being the suspected shooter, and parents and community members refreshed their phones for updates.
Meanwhile, false social media posts and other uncorroborated reports only fueled fear and distractions, as Axios' Katie Peralta Soloff noted.
Zoom in: UNC issued an initial alert saying an "armed and dangerous person" on or near campus at 1:03pm, one minute after the 911 call.

Alerts asking students to shelter in place and stay away from windows began at 1:21pm.
James, the campus police chief, said police detained the suspected shooter at 2:31pm, nearly 90 minutes after the initial 911 call.
Four minutes later they posted a photo of a person of interest on social media.
But the shelter-in-place remained in effect — and UNC alerts continued to say the suspect was at large — until after 4pm. James said the delay was because police needed time to identify the shooter. They had detained another person and released him in the meantime, James said.
Chapel Hill-Carrboro Public Schools system posted that it had received the "all clear" to dismiss at 3:40pm.
Between the lines: Police and university officials didn't confirm that a shooting took place until the 5:45pm press conference.

The only official acknowledgement of a shooting during the afternoon hours came from Gov. Roy Cooper, whose office confirmed to Axios that a shooting occurred after issuing a statement pledging all state resources "to capture the shooter."
The big picture: The alerts sent the campus and surrounding areas into a state of uncertainty.

A large police presence centered on several lab buildings on South Road near the school's bell tower, one of the most photographed landmarks in the state.
And for many, the events brought back horrifying memories of Feb. 10, 2015, when three Muslim students — two UNC dentistry students and one N.C. State student — were killed in an off-campus house.
What they're saying: "This is a time for the community to come together," UNC Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz said in the evening press conference.

"These tragic events are sadly happening across the nation."