CHAPEL HILL — Police evacuated the apartment complex of a 23-year-old man who injured six people when he drove a Jeep Laredo across the main student hub on the UNC-Chapel Hilll campus shortly before noon.

The driver was identified as Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar (pron. Mo-hahm'-mid Reh'-za Tah-ur-Eh-zar'), 22, of 303 Smith Level Road, Apt. D34, Carrboro. He is a December 2005 UNC graduate.

Friday afternoon, Carrboro police evacuated the University Commons apartment complex after other law enforcement agencies relayed comments Taheri-azar had made that caused “a concern for community safety,” said Capt. Joel Booker.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the State Bureau of Investigation and other local emergency agencies, including a bomb squad, are on the scene of the mostly student complex at the intersection of Smith Level and BPW Club roads.

According to the Associated Press, the FBI joined the case because Taheri-azar, a native of Iran, "allegedly made statements that he acted to avenge the American treatment of Muslims. The ongoing investigation will work to confirm this," said Special Agent Richard Kolko, an FBI spokesman in Washington.

Around 12:30 p.m., police started knocking on doors at Building D. Niralee Shah, a senior at UNC-CH, was just waking up from a nap when she heard loud banging on apartment doors above her.

A man in a helmet and vest with a big gun banged on her door. When she opened it, Shah said, he grabbed her by the arm and said she had to leave.

Shah quickly grabbed her shoes and coat and joined other residents outside the building.

From about 100 feet away, Shah watched with others as police aimed guns at a third-floor window in building D while they crouched behind a car they used as a barricade.

Later, officers began evacuating the other five buildings and asked residents to move their cars and leave the complex entirely.

Emergency Management officials set up temporary shelter for displaced residents at the Century Center in Carrboro, but as of 6 p.m. no one had take up the offer.


No one seriously injured at UNC

None of the six, who were taken to UNC Hospitals, was seriously injured, university officials said. Five of the victims were students and one was not, said Stephanie Crayton, hospital spokeswoman. Five of the six people who were taken to UNC Hospitals have been released after being treated for minor injuries, hospital officials said. The sixth person is not expected to be admitted. Three other people declined treatment on the scene.

Taheri-azar drove the car from between the Lenoir dining hall and the Greenlaw building around 11:53 a.m.

He shot across the area above the Pit, outside the Student Union, and rounded the corner between the dining hall and Davis Library. He then sped away, called 911 and waited to be arrested.

He surrendered without incident at Plant and Hillview roads in Chapel Hill, near University Mall, according to police.

Police said their intent at this time is to charge the suspect with nine counts of attempted first-degree murder and nine counts of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury with intent to kill. UNC police are in possession of the vehicle he was driving, a late model Jeep Cherokee. The initial report came in at 11:53 a.m.

Booker said he thinks Taheri-azar has two roommates that police would like to interview.

“We may find out in a little bit this is all for naught,” he said. “In today’s society, we cannot take any chance, based on what we know at this point."

Up until December, Taheri-azar was living in Chapel Hill’s Northampton Plaza Apartments at 600 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Apt. 219. A Social Security number was issued to him in 1991.


'This was obviously a deliberate attempt'

Next page >