Chapel Hill hotel still closed after fire. Police say suspected arsonist was shot.
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- Siena Hotel remains closed after fire; damage assessed as extensive by town.
- Police identified longtime employee Randall Bullock as likely arson suspect.
- Bullock found dead in hotel; case treated as probable self-inflicted shooting.
The Siena Hotel remains closed indefinitely following Friday’s fire, which damaged the Chapel Hill landmark and shut down surrounding streets for hours while police searched for a barricaded man.
The damage to the hotel “is extensive,” town spokesman Alex Carrasquillo said Wednesday. The fire department and police are still investigating the fire, he said.
A recorded message at the Siena said reservations are being canceled, at least through Oct. 1, and customers should be getting refunds. There is no reopening date yet, it said.
Roughly 50 people were forced to evacuate the hotel at 1505 E. Franklin St. when the fire broke out around 4:30 a.m. Friday. The hotel is about two miles east of downtown Chapel Hill and includes the popular Italian restaurant Il Palio.
No injuries were reported, but two hotel guests told ABC11, The News & Observer’s newsgathering partner, that they saw a man carrying a hammer and a butcher’s knife on the stairwell. Another guest reported seeing a “big ball of fire” come out of the elevator.
Firefighters rescued one person from a balcony after the smoke grew too thick for them to leave the hotel, Carrasquillo has said.
Police never made contact with the hotel employee suspected of starting the fire, who barricaded himself in a hotel room, he said.
Hotel employee died from gunshot
Police found 60-year-old Randall Moore Bullock of Chapel Hill dead inside the hotel around noon Friday. They have not provided a possible motive, but Bullock was a third-shift night clerk at the hotel for years, according to town officials and friends.
Carrasquillo said Bullock appears to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, but his body has been sent to the state Medical Examiner’s Office to determine the cause of death.
Bullock was a well-known figure in Chapel Hill’s music scene, working as music director at UNC-Chapel Hill’s student-run WXYC radio station from 1990 to 1992. He also formed a record label, Jesus Christ, releasing music in the mid-1990s from several local indie-rock bands.
His friend, Glenn Boothe, told The News & Observer that Bullock never married and didn’t have any children, but he had become more reclusive. Bullock’s home on Hickory Drive was filled with records, books, newspapers and videos, he said.
Boothe said he didn’t notice anything different when he hung out with Bullock twice last month at local music shows.
“I just don’t see Randy being the kind of person to hurt other people,” he said. “This whole thing is shocking.”
N&O staff writers Chantal Allam, Dan Kane and Mark Schultz contributed to this report.
This story was originally published August 27, 2025 at 10:39 AM.
