unc, chill, that is integrated into the city. there are parts where you ll pass by the residential neighborhoods. until you get to a class building or gym. a situation that might be a building on campus, which is why not only students but also residents of chapel hill are on lockdown and because that first alert as you pointed out went out about two hours ago, it s not clear where exactly the suspect might be at this point, but they are telling people to keep their distance and to call 911, alex. but it can present a scary situation. it absolutely does, and the problem is at a campus, it s a large campus to house students. it s a huge area for police. both those who may be joining from raleigh, and those there at university of north carolina campus police. just want to let all of you know, we re seeing one week into the start of classes, on that university campus, and what s happening, you have students
join us for chris jansing reports every weekday, 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. eastern here on msnbc. our breaking coverage of the situation at unc chill, the search for an armed and dangerous suspect with students told to shelter in place. we ll continue with alex witt, right now. thank you for that, chris. good afternoon to all of you, i m alex witt in for katy tur. we are following this breaking news out of the university of north carolina, where shots reportedly have been fired. police officials say an armed and dangerous person is on or near that campus, and right now, students are being told to shelter in place. authorities have just released this photo. it came out just moments ago. this is the man they are describing as a person of interest. they do not know his location at this time. but they do describe him as a person of interest. that may be because this has been an ongoing situation for the better part of two hours