there was initially reports of shots fired around the 1:00 p.m. eastern hour. we have not really gotten an update. anxiety we understand is high because information is just so scarce, but the last indication from university police is that the suspect in this active assailant that he are calling him, or them, is still at large. you are looking at pictures from wtvd, and this has been the scene the last hour. several police vehicles with their sirens on, we ve seen ambulances in the area, but we haven t seen them leave. and no reports of any injuries. of course this is still very much so active. wral and wtvd are local affiliates in the area, they were reporting that will was concentrated around the bell tower part of campus which is a central part of campus. there are other reports that a lab right across the way from the bell tower was the focus of the investigation. and we ve been looking at video. you are seeing a local news
that photograph you see bottom right of your screen there of a person of interest. now, that photograph, neil, as i went through x, the social media app, matched the profile of somebody on x. it matched the profile picture. that person described themselves as being a graduate student of sciences at the university of north carolina. now, we don t have that name confirmed yet. we don t say it publicly. that would appear to match the profile exactly. it also appears to match the photograph of the person on the ground that was posted by that local tv station, wral. also interesting to note that we re just getting word that k-12 schools in the chapel hill area that have been on lockdown are now being told that they can release students. that would appear to speak to the idea that something is indeed in custody. you d not expect them to be
was happening. it was terrifying because you know, you see that on your phone and you think it s just one of those things. reporter: police putting out this photo of what they called a person of interest. then what appeared to be an arrest shown on wral. now they re leading the person around the vehicle in handcuffs. that s the person we saw sitting down on the street with his hands behind his back getting into the back of that police car. reporter: and just after 4:00 the campus given the all-clear. you know, ali, we ll never get used to that sight of students with their hands up leaving a college campus. there are a lot of questions here about what led up to this and what actually happened. reporter: absolutely, lester. chief among them how and why this happened. at this hour the suspect and victim are unidentified. law enforcement still searching for a firearm. nonetheless a harrowing and frightening way to go back to school. lester? ali vitali, thank you. and there
everybody is absolutely safe. that is why coupled with the size of this campus that it is taking a number of hours for them to get the all clear to everybody there, neil. neil: it is humongous. thanks, jonathan hunt. 34,000 in an around just that campus there. updating you on that. chris swecker joins us, former fbi assistant director. chris, thank you for helping us out as you have been. what do you make of this situation now and for a lot of nervous parents watching, wondering if their kids are okay, i m not saying we re at the all clear here, but are we over the original crisis fear? what do you think is going on? yeah, i think the initial crisis wral is a local station. good sources in the police department. i ve done security checks throughout chapel hill. i assessed that police
obviously checking every i.d. they did take somebody in to custody. they handcuffed a person, began questioning that person. that person was actually released. but about 1 1/2 hours later, we started getting the reports from wral that the suspect now in this incident is actually in custody. we re awaiting confirmation from u.n.c. police of that as a fact. we don t know it as a fact right now. but wral in raleigh appears to be confident of their information from what they say are their own police sources, neil. neil: great reporting, jonathan. i hear that students are to shelter in place. but many are walking around on the grounds of the campus or being led away from the campus. so some must be awaiting the all-clear. how are they deciding that and allowing some people to move around and others not? in this situation, neil what