Surreal Terror at UNC

Around 11:35 this morning, I was working in the grad student office in 303 Bingham when I decided I wanted to get some lunch. But I was also really tired so I stretched out on the couch in the office for a quick catnap. About fifteen minutes later, the office phone rang. I got up to answer it and it turned out to be my colleague and friend Cindy. I could immediately tell something was wrong; Cindy's voice was quavering and sounded completely shaken. When I asked what was wrong, she told me that some SUV had just driven through the Pit area of campus, running over a number of students and that she had witnessed it. I immediately left to go over to the Pit and see what I could do to help.

The Pit is the student commons area and main hub of the UNC campus. At lunch time, it is usually packed with students and faculty. It is inside the main campus, a good distance away from any road and parking lot. Apparently, this car drove down through campus, got to the Pit, and then squealed its tires and accelerated through the crowd, looking for victims. Nine people were injured and six were taken to the hospital; fortunately, however, none of the injuries were serious and it appears that none of the students will have to be admitted.

Needless to say, the Pit area was in chaos when I got there. The police and paramedics hadn't yet arrived and there was a palpable commotion. Very scary. My friend, who had witnessed the event, was very shaken. And apparently we were very lucky. As reports come in, the guy who did it apparently rented the SUV, looking for the biggest car he could find, and deliberately (obviously) plowed through the crowd in an apparent "protest" against American treatment of Muslims around the world. In other words, this could have been far, far worse.

This is a reeling university community right now. Just last week one student died and another was severely injured in a freak accident where the students fell through a third story dorm window. Today's incident was positively surreal. I am glad it ended up fairly well. It is scary how random some things can be. Had I not taken a catnap, I may very well have been in that driver's path myself. Sheesh.