March 03, 2006
Carolina Crusher
Is someone is taking tomorrow night's Duke-Carolina basketball game just a bit too seriously?
Shocked UNC students watched in disbelief around noon Friday as an SUV plowed through a crowd at The Pit, the central gathering place, injuring at least two students.Several students said the driver was young and wearing a dark suit and tie and they said he intentionally swerved to hit people.
The driver fled but was arrested soon after by Chapel Hill Police. His name was not immediately available.
Classes had just changed and The Pit was crowded. Witnesses said the SUV was going at least 40 miles per hour as it passed Lenoir Dining Hall. The condition of those injured was not immediately available.
All kidding about the intense Duke-Carolina rivalry aside, I have it on expert authority that the SUV was a rental vehicle picked up last night from a central North Carolina rental car company. If it was picked up for use as a weapon, atttepted murder charges would seem plausible.
Update: The 23-year-old driver has been identified as Mohammed Reza Taheriazar, which the News and Observer identifies as being a UNC-Chapel Hill student as late as last year.
In what could be an unrelated event, the Daily Tar Heel joined the Cartoon Wars, running this editorial cartoon February 9:
None of the staff of the Daily Tar Heel were among the injured, however, and a motive had not been announced.
Update 2:Terrorism confirmed
The driver of an SUV that plowed into a group of pedestrians at UNC-Chapel Hill on Friday told police it was retribution for the treatment of Muslims around the world, according to ABC News.
It appears to be an isolated incident. Also, the Duke-Carolina game is Saturday night, not tonight.
Test
Posted by: TallDave at March 3, 2006 04:38 PMI heard about the "accident" on WRAL on my way to work this afternoon. (It was still being called an accident at that time.)
I suppose one need not have an airplane or explosives to be a terrorist.
Posted by: Russ at March 3, 2006 04:59 PMOops... I meant WPTF, not WRAL.
Posted by: Russ at March 3, 2006 06:00 PMSounds like a little personal jihad to me. But what do I know; I'm a lowly infidel.
Posted by: foreign devil at March 3, 2006 06:50 PMSo instead of joining the military so he could go kill terrorists or Saddam who have been mass murdering Muslims for years, this guy decides to try to kill UNC students as a way to avenge the treatment of Muslims throughout the world. And these people wonder why Western Civilization has passed them by with "logical" thinking such as that. *rolling my eyes*
Posted by: Michael in MI at March 3, 2006 08:54 PMI wonder if the suicidally naive apologists for Islam will stop to think about the fact that this was a group of students at one of the most liberal colleges in the southeast... This idiot was emboldened by the apparently limp reaction to worldwide jihad. We all need to stand together to defeat islamofascism. Divided we fall.
Posted by: Jeff in NC at March 3, 2006 09:30 PMIslamofascists kill other Muslims and this idiot is going to try and kill kids that more than likely never even voted for Bush? Thank God he was inept. Throw the book at him!
Posted by: Mark at March 3, 2006 10:04 PMoff with his head!!!!
Posted by: josh at March 3, 2006 10:23 PMWHen I heard about this on the news at the mosque I dropped my BLT knocked over my beer and it spilled all over my porno mag.
Posted by: Akmed at March 3, 2006 10:41 PMRaleigh,NC alert
Organizing a group of RTP,North Carolina citizens that will educate the NC public about the ideology of radical Islam.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RTP911
Posted by: rtp911help at March 4, 2006 10:14 AM
Imagine if I, a Christian, had tried this act in the old Afghanistan or Saddam's Iraq,who amoung us feels I would survive. I wonder if the ACLU would come to my defense.
Mark
Las Vegas
Apparently, this kid didn't get the memo about how Muslims are temporarily using American liberals to further their agenda.
You know, if he'd spent more time with the Muslim student organization he would know these things!
Posted by: Cate at March 4, 2006 01:59 PMSo, how did he get a social security number? He is from Iran, right? Now that he has graduated, isn't it time for him to go home? Wonder what he majored in? Why are Iranian students (?) still in this country?
Posted by: Cowgirl at March 5, 2006 09:05 AMIt's amazing to me that, while looking up this jerk's phone number, that there has not been a phone number or address for Mohammed Reza Taheriazar in the greater Raleigh/Durham area for the past two years. Makes you wonder, don't it?
Posted by: David at May 5, 2006 12:20 AM
