Three years after the 2023 UNC-Chapel Hill shooting, judge finds accused grad student not guilty by reason of insanity

An Orange County judge ruled Friday that a former graduate student charged with shooting and killing a UNC-Chapel Hill professor in 2023 was found not guilty by reason of insanity. Tailei Qi faced a first-degree murder charge for the fatal shooting of Zijie Yan, an associate professor in the Department of Applied Physical Sciences at UNC. The judge ruled that Tailei Qi did not understand the wrongfulness of his actions. Orange County District Attorney Jeff Nieman says experts with the prosecution and defense say they found that Qi suffered from mental delusions and ultimately believed he was acting in self defense for himself and someone else that may not exist. Just a few months after the shooting, Qi had been deemed unfit for trial .

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