911 call reveals chaotic, frantic scene after gun spotted at UNC-Chapel Hill Wednesday
The person who brandished a gun in the UNC-Chapel Hill student union Wednesday pulled the weapon at the counter of a campus bagel shop, according to a 911 caller in a recording released Thursday.
“There’s a guy that just pulled a gun on somebody at the counter,” the caller informed the dispatcher.
Mickel Deonte Harris, 27, is charged with assault, possessing a firearm on educational property and communicating threats in connection to the incident Wednesday that sent the university campus into lockdown for more than an hour.
UNC Police Chief Brian James said Wednesday Harris allegedly confronted an employee at Alpine Bagel, an on-campus restaurant in the university’s student union, displayed a firearm and threatened the employee.
James said the first 911 call was placed around 12:45 p.m. Wednesday. An Alert Carolina message was issued at 12:54 p.m. after police confirmed the threat was credible, James said.
It was the university’s second lockdown in 16 days, after the fatal shooting of a professor on Aug. 28.
Background noise on the call appeared to show a chaotic and frantic scene, with some indistinguishable screaming or yelling.
“Oh my [expletive] God,” someone could be heard yelling in the background.
The caller told the dispatcher they left the building and was standing nearby while calling 911. Someone else in the background said they saw the gun and ran outside.
The 911 dispatcher said officers were on the scene and “trying to locate” the individual with the gun.
Police cleared the bathrooms at the student union and moved all the students to a safe location around 1:30 p.m., according to an Orange County EMS report released Thursday on radio communications.
Callers reported to 911 that the gun had a “light on the end of it,” radio and 911 communication records say, indicating it was equipped with a laser sight. More than one caller reported hearing gunshots, the records say, but officers could not confirm those reports. They later announced that no shots had been fired.
Police reported the suspect fled in a rented, white Hyundai Sonata, according to the EMS report. They found the car on Chapel Hill’s Formosa Lane just after 2 p.m., it said.
An all-clear message was issued for the university at 2:12 p.m. Harris was arrested around 2:45 p.m., according to police.
This story was originally published September 14, 2023 at 2:52 PM with the headline "911 call reveals chaotic, frantic scene after gun spotted at UNC-Chapel Hill Wednesday."
