A mental evaluation reveals that the man accused of shooting a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty member Aug. 28 and sparking a campus-wide lockdown lacks the mental capacity to be tried for the crime.
Tailei Qi, a 34-year-old doctoral student at UNC-CH, faces charges of first-degree murder and having a gun on education property. He is being held without bond and is represented by a public defender.
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Qi is accused of shooting Zijie Yan, an associate professor in the department of Applied Physical Sciences and Qi's academic advisor.
In the months before his death, Yan reached out to a colleague to express concern over a student who had told him about struggling with severe mental illness and delusions, but he did not specify that student was Qi.
The state will commission a second mental evaluation of Qi to be performed at Central Regional Hospital at Butner.
Qi's defense attorney, though, did raise concerns about a backlog and the implications that could have on the case.
In an unusual move, Qi went against the advice of the judge and his own attorneys and addressed the court. He called that mental evaluation into question.
Qi also said he's having issues with his attorneys and expressed he was dissatisfied with the representation. He said the claims of him having mental health problems were a way to "bypass" that concern.
Qi joined the Yan Research Group in January of 2022, and he studied topics such as machine learning, light matter interaction and spectra analysis.
Qi holds a master's degree from Louisiana State University and a degree from Wuhan University in China.
Carter Scott, a UNC grad student and former classmate of Qi's, told WRAL News that Qi had struggled to adjust to UNC.
"In hindsight, I would guess he probably didn’t have a very good network here. I get the impression he went to another university out of the country. So he was very new. Very out of his element. Very quiet. So I can see a situation where he didn’t have that many people close to him," said Scott.
Qi is due back in court Nov. 14. That date could be pushed back if that second mental health evaluation hasn't been completed yet.