The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have reached a settlement with the family of a professor shot and killed on campus nearly two years ago.
On Wednesday, WRAL learned that the university made a $750,000 settlement with the family of Professor Zijie Yan.
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“The settlement is intended to provide financial support to help care for Dr. Yan’s children following the tragic loss of their father, who lost his life on Aug. 28, 2023, when he was shot and killed in his lab office on campus,” UNC spokesperson Kevin Best wrote in a statement.
The settlement was first reported by The News & Observer.
The UNC Board of Governors and the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office approved the settlement. No state funds were used to pay the settlement costs, Best said.
A father of two, Yan was an associate professor in UNC’s department of applied physical sciences, where he focused on nanoscience technology. He was studying how it can be used to improve drug delivery to human cells.
Yan was shot and killed on Aug. 28, 2023, at a building on campus.
Tailei Qi, 34, one of Yan's graduate students, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and possession of a weapon on educational property.
In November 2023, Qi was deemed not mentally capable of standing trial, according to multiple psychiatric evaluations.
Two psychiatric evaluations, conducted in September 2023 and November 2023, concluded that Qi has severe mental illness, most likely schizophrenia or untreated psychosis.
Authorities were holding Qi at a mental health facility at Butner Prison in Granville County.
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