The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Police Department admitted that while the campus was in lockdown during an active shooter event, its officers detained a different Asian man believing they had the killer, NBC News reports. He was not.
The active shooter situation on campus, where one in six students is of Asian ancestry, was aggravated as the photo of the wrong man being detained circulated among college students and staff for more than a half hour before the actual shooter was identified and detained.
While police said the detained man was questioned and ultimately released, the incident raised concerns among Asian students and others about racial profiling. The actual shooter, who is suspected of murdering an associate professor over an academic issue, was ultimately taken into custody. The issue was so prevalent during the shutdown, a professor of Asian heritage on campus posted on social media, “Please stay safe and if you are an Asian male, do not go outside until this is over. The suspect is an Asian male and you don’t want to be mistaken.”