Gunman who threatened UNC bagel shop employee sentenced in Orange County
A gunman who threatened a driver and then pulled a gun on a bagel-shop employee at UNC-Chapel Hill about a week later, putting the campus under a lockdown, was sentenced in court this week.
Mickel Harris, 28, pleaded guilty in an Orange County courtroom Monday to assault by pointing a gun, assault with a deadly weapon, carrying a concealed gun, and two counts of communicating threats, court records show.
Some of the charges stem from the Sept. 13, 2023, incident on campus, while others are related to a Sept. 5, 2023, road-rage incident.
Harris was sentenced to 120 days in jail on the misdemeanor charges and ordered to participate in Orange County’s Restorative Justice program, which focuses on getting defendants to take accountability and learn how their actions affected others.
Harris also faced a felony charge of having a gun on educational property, but that will be dismissed if he completes the restorative justice program, records show.
The felony charge is not being dismissed just because Harris is participating in the restorative program, Orange County District Attorney Jeff Nieman said Tuesday.
“It also was an evaluation by our assistant [district attorney] about the evidence and what we could prove. There were issues with the credibility and cooperation of witnesses that affected decisions that she needed to make in this case,” he said.
Road-rage incident
Harris was accused of pulling a handgun on another driver on Sept.. 5, 2023, in the parking lot of a convenience store in Chapel Hill, according to a Chapel Hill Police Department report previously obtained by The News & Observer.
In that incident, the report said Harris allegedly shouted at the other man, “I’m gonna kill you. You don’t know who I am.”
Bagel shop incident
Harris then pulled a 9mm weapon on Sept. 13, 2023, and threatened a supervisor at the Alpine Bagels shop on UNC’s campus, warrants state. University personnel information obtained by The N&O showed Harris was a part-time UNC housekeeping employee until his arrest.
Orange County Assistant District Attorney Maren Hardin said previously in court that Harris told the bagel shop supervisor that he would “blow your [expletive] head off.”
No shots were fired, but the incident sent students running from UNC’s Student Union, according to police officers who responded to a 911 call about a gunman. Hardin said the bagel shop supervisor told police that Harris was upset because his girlfriend had been fired that morning.
The incident with the gun on campus followed another incident just 16 days earlier that locked down the university. In that case, Tailei Qi, 36, is accused of fatally shooting associate professor Zijie Yan at the start of the fall semester.
The first-degree murder case is still pending in Orange County Superior Court. QI remains in the Orange County jail without bail.
This story was originally published January 28, 2025 at 1:16 PM.
