9 injured by SUV at UNC-Chapel Hill

9 injured by SUV at UNC-Chapel Hill Updated: 3/3/2006 7:32 PM By: Associated Press

The driver of an SUV that sped through the UNC-CH campus, hitting several people, allegedly planned the attack as retribution for the treatment of Muslims around the world.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- A recent University of North Carolina graduate faces attempted murder charges after a sport utility vehicle raced through a popular campus gathering spot Friday, hurting nine people and scattering startled bystanders.

Six people -- five students and a visiting scholar -- were treated at UNC Hospitals, though a hospital spokesman said none was seriously injured. Five were released Friday and the sixth wasn't expected to be admitted to the hospital, the university said in a statement. Three other people declined treatment at the scene, police said.

Mohammed Reza Taheriazar, 22, a December graduate, was being held Friday by campus police. They intend to charge him with nine counts of attempted murder and nine counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, said Capt. George Hare of the UNC Department of Public Safety.

The FBI joined the case because Taheriazar, 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.

Officials say the incident occurred in front of Lenoir Hall in a gathering area known as The Pit, a popular gathering spot in the center of the campus. Officials say the incident occurred in front of Lenoir Hall in a gathering area known as The Pit, a popular gathering spot in the center of the campus. Taheriazar called police to surrender and then awaited officers on a side street about two miles away from campus, Chapel Hill police Capt. Brian Curran said.

"He kind of gave himself up," said Officer Herbert Bryant of the university's Department of Public Safety.

"As far as delving into his motives and things like that, we're in the process of developing that in our investigation," Hare said.

The incident happened just before noon near the center of campus at the area known as The Pit, a sunken, brick-paved area surrounded by two libraries, a dining hall and the student union. It does not have any easy access points for vehicles and can't be reached without deliberation.

"I see everyone kind of part because there's a car coming through and the next thing I know, I'm on his windshield," sophomore Jeff Hoffman, his arm in a bandage, told the campus newspaper, The Daily Tar Heel.

Mohammed Reza Taheriazar is led to the back of a police cruiser. Mohammed Reza Taheriazar is led to the back of a police cruiser. Student Nicholas Altman was talking on his cell phone when he heard someone scream.

"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," he told WRAL-TV.

On a sunny, cool day like Friday, the Pit is a busy center of campus activities, with students perched along the walkways and steps. Friday's noontime crowd included a gathering of candidates for Black Student Movement elections.

"He slowly came in, and I thought he was going to stop or something," sophomore Scot Wilson, a candidate for BSM vice president, told The Daily Tar Heel. "But then he sped right through."

By 3 p.m., a bomb squad from the State Bureau of Investigation had come to University Commons apartments in nearby Carrboro, where Taheriazar lived, at the request of local police, said SBI spokeswoman Noelle Talley. Carrboro police did not immediately return a call.

The incident came a week after a UNC dormitory resident adviser was killed when he and another student crashed through a dorm window, falling four stories onto the concrete below. The second student remains hospitalized in fair condition.

Religious Terrorism Strikes Chapel Hill

http://www.humaneventsonline.com/heublog.php

Friday, March 03, 2006
Religious Terrorism Strikes Chapel Hill
By: Jillian Bandes

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- With backpacks as physical shields, University of North Carolina students are now called to defend themselves against religious terrorism while they walk the halls of their school.

Earlier today, just before high noon, Mohammed Reza Taheriazar, 22, bulldozed the center of UNC's main campus with a silver Jeep Grand Cherokee -- the biggest SUV he could find -- in order to retaliate against treatment of Muslims around the world, he said. Taheriazar, a recent graduate, sent six to the hospital with injuries and hit three others in what is not only a tragedy for the Chapel Hill community but an sad example of an ideological difference digressing into violent conflict.

Hundreds of students gathered to see what happened in what was first deemed a freak accident. Then, reports came in that a bomb squad, state and federal Bureaus of Investigation, and local Carrboro police were surrounding what is believed to be Taheriazar's apartment.

A bomb threat had been made to his residence in the University Commons complex Friday afternoon, a popular apartment complex for students. Forces entered the Building D at approximately 5:28 p.m., and a booming noise was heard in the surrounding area. No explosion was observed.

Though his connection to the bomb threat remained uncertain as of this writing, Taheriazar’s intentions with his Jeep Grand Cherokee were made chillingly clear after authorities questioned him. He said his goals were to inflict maximum damage to the students of UNC in order to seek retribution for the treatment of Muslims around the world.

This claim is sickeningly fitting given recent events on the UNC campus.

In the wake of the Danish cartoon controversy, UNC's school newspaper, the Daily Tar Heel, ran a knockoff cartoon picturing the prophet Muhammad wrestling with the question of what Islam truly stands for and how it is represented in the media. The cartoon, printed on February 9, elicited wide criticism from the Muslim Student Association and the group Student Action with Workers, which staged a sit-in on the Daily Tar Heel’s offices demanding an apology from the paper. Opinion Editor Chris Cameron and Editor in Chief Ryan Tuck refused to submit to their demands.

Months prior, I was dismissed from my position as weekly columnist after writing in support of racial profiling of Arabs in airports around the anniversary of 9/11. National media descended on the school and letters to the editor papered the walls of the Daily Tar Heel's offices twice over, and the local Muslim community was outraged. Despite my denials, the Daily Tar Heel leadership maintains I was dismissed for quoting Arab students out of context.

In an official statement, the Muslim Student Association called the decision to print the Daily Tar Heel cartoon a misuse of freedom of the press to "offend and further only intolerance and disrespect," and that "such actions undermine the environment of diversity and multiculturalism" otherwise promoted at UNC's liberal campus.

Sarah Shields, associate professor of history and one of UNC's most prominent scholars on the Middle East, described the situation as this over the Progressive Faculty List serve: "In the past, I have reassured Muslim parents and applicants that the climate at UNC is very supportive. I can't do that any more."

---snip---

This link to human events online also shows the 12 original cartoons.

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