Attacker Confesses to Running Students Over
By Philip Jones

Just minutes after plowing through the lunchtime crowd in the Pit, Mohammed Taheri-azar called 911 on his cell phone and admitted injuring nine people and leaving the UNC campus shaken.

“I just hit several people with a vehicle,” Taheri-azar said.

Police said Taheri-azar drove a rented SUV onto campus, snaking his way between Lenoir and Greenlaw halls and into the Pit. He then sped away between Lenoir Dining Hall and Davis Library and drove to Plant Road, where he called police to come arrest him.

That’s where he told authorities the reason behind the attack.

In his call, he said he wanted to “punish the U.S. government for its actions all over the world.” He went on to say he explained his actions in a one-page letter police could find in his bedroom.

Authorities then locked down the University Commons apartment complex. They wouldn’t talk about what they found, but an FBI bomb squad left its mark.

Hours after the attack, Taheri-azar smiled while he was transferred from Department of Public Safety custody to Raleigh Central Prison.

On Saturday, officials said Taheri-azar worked alone, and said that no connection can currently be made between Taheri-azar’s actions and an offensive cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad that appeared in The Daily Tar Heel last month.