Preacherman
Member
Any guesses as to (political) motivation here?
From WRAL ( http://www.wral.com/news/7651436/detail.html ):
Driver Identified In UNC Hit-And-Run
Six Hurt As SUV Plows Into Student-Filled 'Pit'
POSTED: 12:30 pm EST March 3, 2006
UPDATED: 7:21 pm EST March 3, 2006
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Authorities say 23-year-old Mohammed Reza Taheriazar drove a silver Jeep Grand Cherokee into The Pit at the UNC-Chapel Hill campus around noon Friday, injuring five students and a visiting scholar.
Police said they would charge Taheriazar, who was a UNC student as recently as Fall 2005, with multiple counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill. Authorities are not releasing a motive, but they did say the incident was intentional.
Six people were taken to UNC Hospitals with minor injuries, hospital spokesman Tom Hughes said. Five had been treated and released late Thursday afternoon, while one person was still undergoing treatment but was not expected to be admitted. Three other people declined treatment on the scene, according to police.
Authorities later found the vehicle on Plant Road near Franklin Street and Taheriazar was taken into custody. Authorities said that drugs and alcohol are not believed to have been involved.
A student who witnessed the event, said that the SUV was going between 40 and 45 mph when it hit the students at the Pit, which is located in an open area surrounded by two libraries, a dining hall and the Frank Porter Graham Student Union on campus.
Campus police said Taheriazar used an area designed to give access to Lenoir Hall to work his way to the Pit. Coming from the parking lots in the north side of Davis Library, a car could travel down the side of the cafeteria and end up in the Pit from there. Normally, there are barricades up but on Friday, they were not in place.
Several witnesses saw the SUV as it plowed through that part of campus.
"He was speeding up and swerving to hit people. One person got knocked out of a wheelchair, and he didn't care," said student Lauren Westate, who saw the accident.
Nicholas Altman, who was having coffee nearby, said that one man was hit and thrown onto the hood of the SUV. That person was taken away on a stretcher, Altman said.
"I was on my phone and I heard somebody scream," Altman said. "I turned around and there was a white SUV. It looked like it hit a couple of people. One person in particular went over the hood."
Student affairs staff and counselors have been providing support to students who watched the scene unfold.
State and local investigators converged outside the University Commons Apartments in Carrboro early Friday afternoon, where the suspect in the UNC incident is believed to have lived.
Around two hours after the crash, state and local investigators surrounded Building D at University Commons Apartments at 303 Smith Level Road in Carrboro, where Taheriazar is believed to have lived. Bomb squad officers entered the building around 5:15 p.m., but there is no word if anything has been found inside.
The incident came just a week after the campus was shaken by the death of one of two students who crashed through a dormitory window, falling four stories onto the concrete below. The second student remained hospitalized in fair condition.
Friday's incident brought back memories of a deadly day near campus from several years ago. Back in 1995, Wendell Williamson walked down a street near campus and opened fire. Two people died in the rampage.
Williamson, who was a law student, was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity and sent to Dorothea Dix Mental Hospital, where he remains under care.
From WRAL ( http://www.wral.com/news/7651436/detail.html ):
Driver Identified In UNC Hit-And-Run
Six Hurt As SUV Plows Into Student-Filled 'Pit'
POSTED: 12:30 pm EST March 3, 2006
UPDATED: 7:21 pm EST March 3, 2006
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Authorities say 23-year-old Mohammed Reza Taheriazar drove a silver Jeep Grand Cherokee into The Pit at the UNC-Chapel Hill campus around noon Friday, injuring five students and a visiting scholar.
Police said they would charge Taheriazar, who was a UNC student as recently as Fall 2005, with multiple counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill. Authorities are not releasing a motive, but they did say the incident was intentional.
Six people were taken to UNC Hospitals with minor injuries, hospital spokesman Tom Hughes said. Five had been treated and released late Thursday afternoon, while one person was still undergoing treatment but was not expected to be admitted. Three other people declined treatment on the scene, according to police.
Authorities later found the vehicle on Plant Road near Franklin Street and Taheriazar was taken into custody. Authorities said that drugs and alcohol are not believed to have been involved.
A student who witnessed the event, said that the SUV was going between 40 and 45 mph when it hit the students at the Pit, which is located in an open area surrounded by two libraries, a dining hall and the Frank Porter Graham Student Union on campus.
Campus police said Taheriazar used an area designed to give access to Lenoir Hall to work his way to the Pit. Coming from the parking lots in the north side of Davis Library, a car could travel down the side of the cafeteria and end up in the Pit from there. Normally, there are barricades up but on Friday, they were not in place.
Several witnesses saw the SUV as it plowed through that part of campus.
"He was speeding up and swerving to hit people. One person got knocked out of a wheelchair, and he didn't care," said student Lauren Westate, who saw the accident.
Nicholas Altman, who was having coffee nearby, said that one man was hit and thrown onto the hood of the SUV. That person was taken away on a stretcher, Altman said.
"I was on my phone and I heard somebody scream," Altman said. "I turned around and there was a white SUV. It looked like it hit a couple of people. One person in particular went over the hood."
Student affairs staff and counselors have been providing support to students who watched the scene unfold.
State and local investigators converged outside the University Commons Apartments in Carrboro early Friday afternoon, where the suspect in the UNC incident is believed to have lived.
Around two hours after the crash, state and local investigators surrounded Building D at University Commons Apartments at 303 Smith Level Road in Carrboro, where Taheriazar is believed to have lived. Bomb squad officers entered the building around 5:15 p.m., but there is no word if anything has been found inside.
The incident came just a week after the campus was shaken by the death of one of two students who crashed through a dormitory window, falling four stories onto the concrete below. The second student remained hospitalized in fair condition.
Friday's incident brought back memories of a deadly day near campus from several years ago. Back in 1995, Wendell Williamson walked down a street near campus and opened fire. Two people died in the rampage.
Williamson, who was a law student, was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity and sent to Dorothea Dix Mental Hospital, where he remains under care.
