In a recent incident at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill), police successfully arrested a suspect believed to be armed and dangerous. This marks yet another concerning event involving an armed individual on the campus in a short span of time.
Earlier on Wednesday, UNC-Chapel Hill issued an urgent shelter-in-place order in light of the situation, which was later rescinded. By 5 p.m., the university had officially closed the campus, informing its community through an alert.
The Chapel Hill police have identified the suspect as Mickel Deonte Harris, 27, from Durham, North Carolina. He was wanted on outstanding warrants. Authorities mentioned that the arrest was related to an incident earlier that day on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus. The investigation into this incident remains led by UNC-Chapel Hill.
Fortunately, no one was reported as injured or harmed during the arrest.
This arrest follows a troubling event from a few weeks prior when an assailant shot and took the life of a faculty member on campus. Tailei Qi, a 34-year-old graduate student of UNC, was later charged in August with the first-degree murder of faculty adviser Zijie Yan in one of the campus science buildings. Qi was also found in possession of a 9 mm handgun on educational grounds, resulting in additional charges.