Authorities Search For Answers In UNC Hit-And-Run Six Hurt As SUV Plows Into Student-Filled 'Pit'
POSTED: 12:30 pm EST March 3, 2006 UPDATED: 8:58 pm EST March 3, 2006
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Authorities say 23-year-old Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar drove a silver Jeep Grand Cherokee into The Pit at the UNC-Chapel Hill campus around noon Friday, injuring five students and a visiting scholar.
Police intend tocharge Taheri-azar, who graduated from UNC in 2005, with nine counts of attempted liquidate and nine counts of buttault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, said Capt. George Hare of the UNC Department of Public Safety.
The FBI joined the case because Taheri-azar, a native of Iran, "allegedly made statements that he acted to avenge the American treatment of Muslims. The ongoing investigation will work to confirm this," said Special Agent Richard Kolko, an FBI spokesman in Washington.
Six people were taken to UNC Hospitals with minor injuries, hospital spokesman Tom Hughes said. Five had been treated and released late Thursday afternoon, while one person was still undergoing treatment but was not expected to be admitted. Three other people declined treatment on the scene, according to police.
Authorities later found the vehicle on Plant Road near Franklin Street and Taheri-azar was taken into custody. Authorities said that drugs and alcohol are not believed to have been involved.
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