So this is my Friday. How was yours?
It's been a bizarre day. A beyond bizarre couple of weeks, really.
A little before noon today, a 23-year-old former Carolina student in a silver Jeep Cherokee drove onto North campus, circled the Lenoir dining hall and plowed through a crowd of students before driving off. Intentionally. He actually swerved to hit students. Nine people were injured, and I know six were taken to the hospital.
I had just gotten out of class and was on my way to the Pit where this all occurred because that's where me and my suitemates meet up for lunch. And I called Kim, completely oblivious at this point, to see where she was, and she tells me that someone had gotten hit in the Pit. I was like, What the hell...And I see the huge crowd gathereed out front of the dining hall, and I sort of push my way into the middle of it. I don't really know why, human curiosity or maybe it's that journalist instinct where you have to be in the know and the center of the action.
And then I see one of the men who were hit down on the ground, flat on his back and not moving. There were a few other students, probably pre-med, crouched beside him and talking to him, but I'm not sure if he was even conscious. It was just absolutely horrifying. I saw another couple of people sitting down on the ground like they had been injured, and apparently one girl who got hit knocked her head against a concrete trash can, and she was bleeding.
The police eventually got there and taped off the scene, wheeled off all the injured people to the hospital, but I had to get to my next class. I walked back through the Pit a couple hours later, and I saw where the police had marked the tread marks the jeep had left. I'd never been at a crime scene before.
If that wasn't bizarre enough, the police caught the guy not too long after and were questioning him, and apparently something he said alarmed them. Next thing I'm seeing on TV is the police, the SWAT team, and the FBI surrounding an entire apartment complex where he lived. The complex where he lived...is the same place Daphne and I are looking into living at next year. Um, yeah. The police never would say what it was in his apartment that had them so freaked out, and I'm still not sure if they ever revealed what it was.
But Jesus Christ. Including the two students who fell out a dorm window last Friday, subsequently killing one of them, it just has not been a good time around this campus. Just walking around isn't safe anymore.
After a day like this, I think a weekend of debauchery is in order. Bring on the booze!
(Here's a link to the story if anyone wants to read it: http://www.wral.com/news/7651436/detail.html)
A little before noon today, a 23-year-old former Carolina student in a silver Jeep Cherokee drove onto North campus, circled the Lenoir dining hall and plowed through a crowd of students before driving off. Intentionally. He actually swerved to hit students. Nine people were injured, and I know six were taken to the hospital.
I had just gotten out of class and was on my way to the Pit where this all occurred because that's where me and my suitemates meet up for lunch. And I called Kim, completely oblivious at this point, to see where she was, and she tells me that someone had gotten hit in the Pit. I was like, What the hell...And I see the huge crowd gathereed out front of the dining hall, and I sort of push my way into the middle of it. I don't really know why, human curiosity or maybe it's that journalist instinct where you have to be in the know and the center of the action.
And then I see one of the men who were hit down on the ground, flat on his back and not moving. There were a few other students, probably pre-med, crouched beside him and talking to him, but I'm not sure if he was even conscious. It was just absolutely horrifying. I saw another couple of people sitting down on the ground like they had been injured, and apparently one girl who got hit knocked her head against a concrete trash can, and she was bleeding.
The police eventually got there and taped off the scene, wheeled off all the injured people to the hospital, but I had to get to my next class. I walked back through the Pit a couple hours later, and I saw where the police had marked the tread marks the jeep had left. I'd never been at a crime scene before.
If that wasn't bizarre enough, the police caught the guy not too long after and were questioning him, and apparently something he said alarmed them. Next thing I'm seeing on TV is the police, the SWAT team, and the FBI surrounding an entire apartment complex where he lived. The complex where he lived...is the same place Daphne and I are looking into living at next year. Um, yeah. The police never would say what it was in his apartment that had them so freaked out, and I'm still not sure if they ever revealed what it was.
But Jesus Christ. Including the two students who fell out a dorm window last Friday, subsequently killing one of them, it just has not been a good time around this campus. Just walking around isn't safe anymore.
After a day like this, I think a weekend of debauchery is in order. Bring on the booze!
(Here's a link to the story if anyone wants to read it: http://www.wral.com/news/7651436/detail.html)