UNC shooter says he was bullied, but was he?

4 min readSep 7, 2023

On Monday, August 28th, there was a shooting at the University of North Carolina’s main campus in Chapel Hill. Doctoral student Tailei Qi, 34, is accused of shooting and killing Professor Zijie Yan. Qi was apprehended by police in the town of Chapel Hill about an hour and a half after the shooting. As of last report, no weapon has been found and no motive has been given for the attack. It’s also not known whether Qi obtained the gun legally or not. The weapon used was allegedly a 9mm handgun.

Qi was charged with first-degree murder and having a gun on education property, and entered a plea of not guilty. Qi is from China and is here on a student visa. Right-wing media is having a field day pointing out Qi graduated from Wuhan University, like he was solely responsible for COVID-19, but I digress. They tend to conveniently omit that Qi received his Master’s Degree at Louisiana State University before attending UNC.

Qi is said to have complained about one of his professors along with other students on social media. It’s not clear yet if the professor he complained about was Professor Yan. Here is a sampling…

‘Both the group of people to say I am lazy and that to prove me working hard instead of telling me that are trying to consume my privacy.
‘I judge their motivation is only to tell my PI then control me by taletelling.’

PI stands for Principal Investigator, who is typically the head of a research laboratory.

‘Just have a talk with my PI and get his promise. He should have more experience to handle with these girls and tattletales.
‘Then, we can just get ourselves out of these stupid topic. Let’s just focus our attention on nature. I won’t change anything if not necessary.’
‘Just feel my privacy was insulted.
‘When I work, I will think I was showing the boss I am working instead of interests, devaluing the meaning of my work. That’s so disgusting.
‘Self-respect block me from working. Then it takes pains to convince myself what I do is just because I like.’
‘These kind of people may be a good man actually, but might not be a sincere friend. For a Phd student, pay much attention to working time every day is really childish…
‘I know many people want to me to show them working and working, but no…that’s not human at all.’
‘Bully in America seems to be a problem. It often comes with people not stopping them at the first time. Explanation is not a solution but makes them feel others will plead them every time they raise a problem, making them voyeur to find an excuse day and night.’

There’s a saying that goes if you meet an asshole during the day, you met an asshole, if you meet assholes all day, then you’re the asshole. Like most school shooters, Qi is one of those people who think nothing is ever their fault. Rather than actually admitting they need to work on themselves, they blame others for perceived injustices. Then they perform the ultimate act of cowardice by trying to solve their problems with a gun. As I’m fond of saying, guns are for cowards.

Let’s also not forget that Qi isn’t a 19-year-old freshman. He’s a 34-year-old doctorate candidate. I hate to sound glib, but he should have known better.

One of Qi’s classmates had the usual thing to say about him…

Carter Scott, a UNC grad student and former classmate of Qi’s, spoke with WRAL News.
“I would have never guessed that he would be the kind of person who could possibly be capable of this kind of thing,” Scott said. “He was always very quiet.”
“Every single time he would talk to me, he seemed very nice. When I saw his face in the reports online, I was beyond shocked.”

This kind of quote is almost up there with ‘it can’t happen here’. If someone is selfish and egotistical enough, once they have a gun in their hands, there’s no telling what acts of violence they’re capable of.

Now, let’s hear from a UNC student who’s from a country where this doesn’t happen all the time.

Oliver Katz, an exchange student from Copenhagen Business School in Denmark, said some students crowded into gym locker rooms to get away from windows while others crouched in corners and sat on the floor, he said. Police evacuated them hours later.
“This never happens where I’m from,” Katz said. “It was intense. But I was a little surprised that other people weren’t panicking that much.”

Just another day in America, I suppose.

Yesterday, Qi was indicted for first-degree murder. The Orange County D.A. has said they will not be seeking the death penalty. I can understand why they’re not seeking the death penalty. Not only has no one been executed in North Carolina since 2006, seeking the death penalty for a foreign national could ignite an international incident with one of the world’s major superpowers. Wars have been started for less.

Oh, and it still wasn’t even Labor Day yet when the shooting took place.

I’ll post more as details become available and situations permitting.

(Sources)

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UNC shooter says he was bullied, but was he?

Written by Trench Reynolds

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