You're a college student who suddenly fears for your life

Closer to home! In North Carolina...background: there are almost 20,000 undergraduate students at the UNC campus in Chapel Hill, plus graduate students!

The mascot of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill NC is a Tarheel, which is also the name of the campus newsletter. NPR interviewed the editor of that newspaper, Emily Martin. 

There was a campus shooting on Mon. Aug. 28, which was probably just a blip in your news that evening. But for the thousands of students who lived through it...here're Editor Emily Martin's words and publications...

"Once we got out of lockdown, we immediately started rethinking what our Wednesday paper would look like," Martin told NPR. (see front page below)

Wednesday's front page of The Daily Tar Heel, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's newspaper, featured social media and text messages in the aftermath of a campus shooting.

The Daily Tar Heel
Reporting the news while being the news

"So far this year, there have been at least 86 incidents of gunfire on K-12 schools and college campuses, resulting in 27 deaths and 57 injuries, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun-control research and advocacy group. Since 2013 — the year the nonprofit began analyzing data — there have been at least 1,117 gunfire incidents on school grounds, resulting in 371 deaths and 783 injuries nationally."

from NPR article on Tarheel NC Front Page after recent shooting. (This is the worst article I've ever read by NPR. They never identified the editor with her first name, and they didn't understand "precede" and "predate" as incorrect terms for an accounting of other school shootings not included in this year's report.) 

"The numbers are staggering and still, they precede the massacre of 13 people at Columbine High School in 1999. They predate the mass shooting at Virginia Tech in 2007 that left 32 dead, making it the deadliest mass shooting in the U.S. at the time. And the data leaves out the ghastly murder of 20 young children and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012."

NPR left out other major school shootings, like more recent Uvalde, TX.

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The next day The Tarheel published this:

UNC's campus shooting: What we know so far

It lasted 190 minutes. 

On an otherwise bright Monday afternoon, many UNC students hid in dark classrooms and closets with barricaded doors and other spaces while they waited for updates about an armed and dangerous person on campus.

As some students texted their loved-ones from lockdown with shaky hands, law enforcement officers searched the area for the suspected assailant. 

Most people did not know that Zijie Yan, associate professor in the UNC Department of Applied Physical Sciences, was dead. 

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What we Know About the Shooting at UNC-Chapel Hill (From Charlotte Observer)

" A graduate student was arrested in the shooting at UNC-Chapel Hill on Monday that left a member of the faculty dead and put the entire campus on lockdown for more than three hours.

The university identified the professor who was killed as Zijie Yan, 38. He was an associate professor in the Department of Applied Physical Sciences, where he led the Yan Research Group.

Tailei Qi, 34, was taken into custody on Monday approximately an hour-and-a-half after the initial alert went out from the university just after 1 p.m. warning of an armed and dangerous person on campus. Yan was Qi’s adviser, according to Qi’s UNC bio.

Qi has been charged with first-degree murder and possessing a firearm on educational property, and had his first appearance in Orange County District Court in Hillsborough on Tuesday afternoon. He is being held in jail without bail...."

"Timeline of shooting and lockdown on UNC campus

1:02 p.m.: UNC is notified of shots fired inside Caudill Las on South Road, according to the university.

1:03 p.m.:An initial alert from UNC states that campus police have reported an “armed and dangerous person on or near campus.”

2:04 p.m.:A follow-up alert states that the campus remains on lockdown “as the active assailant situation continues.” The alert advises that anyone on campus should stay sheltered in place, and anyone off campus should stay away from the campus.

2:35 p.m.:UNC police release a photo of a man who is described as a “person of interest” in the ongoing situation. Police say that if anyone sees the person in the photo, they should keep their distance and put their safety first, and call 911.

2:38 p.m.:Officers take a suspect into custody off campus, according to the university. WRAL reported the suspect was arrested on Williams Circle in a neighborhood just under 2 miles from the scene of the shooting.

2:43 p.m.:Gov. Roy Cooper says in a tweet that he’s spoken with Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood and N.C. Department of Public Safety Secretary Eddie Buffaloe, and has pledged all the state resources that are needed to “capture the shooter and protect the UNC campus.”

3:14 p.m.:Another alert from the university advises everyone on campus to remain sheltered in place until an all-clear is given. The alert says all classes and events have been canceled for the rest of the day.

3:51 p.m.:UNC police continue to advise people on campus to stay sheltered in place.

4:14 p.m.: UNC police give the all clear, advising in an alert that people on campus can resume normal activities.

4:33 p.m.: Officials lift guidance to shelter in place but advise people to stay away from the university’s Caudill Labs.

5:20 p.m.:UNC officials confirm in an update that the university was notified of shots being fired inside Caudill Labs at 1:02 p.m. A suspect was taken into custody at around 2:38 p.m. 

5:30 p.m.: More than a dozen FBI agents arrive at the Wilson Library, which stands next to Caudill Labs.

A large bullet hole has shattered a window to the right of the library’s north entrance. Police officers are seen patrolling the edges of the building, searching bushes and storm drains with flashlights and a K-9 dog.

6 p.m. Guskiewicz confirms during a news conference that one UNC faculty member died in Monday’s shooting. Guskiewicz says the shooting has damaged the “trust and safety that is taken for granted in this community,” and thanks UNC police and other law enforcement for their response."

from Charlotte Observer 

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This shooting should not have occurred. It also would probably have been affected by more stringent gun control laws. All those young lives had an experience that they will remember as part of their learning, socializing, being-part-of-a-team-identification-lives. Each time children undergo traumas like this, it leaves a scar on their personalities. 

AND MORE.....

Survivors of gun violence deserve to thrive. Here's how one community is making that a reality

Nine years ago, Lisa Molock founded Let's Thrive Baltimore in her neighborhood to keep young people off the streets and out of the line of fire. She started by building a Healing Garden in a neighborhood devastated by daily gun violence, creating a safe space for survivors to heal and for community members to gather, garden, and thrive.

The project has since grown to provide many critical services to community members—including job programs and mentoring for young people, financial literacy and therapeutic programs for families, and housing and cash assistance for survivors of violence.

Read more about Let's Thrive Baltimore's approach to community violence intervention and learn how you can support their work.

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