Long before Tailei Qi became a person of interest amid reports of an “armed and dangerous person” on University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill’s campus, they were a Twitter s**tposter with a penchant for terrible food photography.
As rumors swirl connecting Qi, a grad student studying applied physical sciences, to the incident at the university, one that has since been given the “all clear,” per local authorities, several internet sleuths took to Twitter, digging into the potential shooter’s online persona.
It was "Dollar General" and "Jacksonville" yesterday. It is "University of North Carolina" and "Chapel Hill" today. #activeshooter pic.twitter.com/CMrdghf71z
— Drip Marvel Shorts #dripmarvel (@DripMarvelShort) August 28, 2023
Alongside the occasional esoteric post — “what is truth?” he asked on July 31, clearly unaware the answer was not bringing a gun to campus — Qi regularly shared some controversial takes on several hot-button cultural issues.
“Many conunter-intuitive situations in society,” he wrote in a post dating back to early June. “Minimum wage do more harm to instead to protect the poor; gender quota is not to protect women but to enhance the discrimination.”
Many conunter-intuitive situation in society: minimum wage do more harm to instead to protect the poor; gender quota is not to protect women but to enhance the discrimination.
— Tailei Qi (@TaileiQi) June 5, 2023
“Short sighted people love limelight,” he wrote in another incredibly ironic post from last May.
Short sighted people love limelight
— Tailei Qi (@TaileiQi) May 5, 2023
But his profile was more than just hot takes. Qi was also quite outspoken about his favorite films — “The Truman Show,” he replied to a prompt tweet asking about users’ preferred movies — and his favorite meals.
what is truth?
— Tailei Qi (@TaileiQi) July 31, 2023
Though Qi often attempted to flex his cooking chops, frequently sharing photos of various dishes he had prepared, the snaps’ terrible lighting and questionable table settings regularly upstaged his photos.
“Looks like **** dude,” wrote @hauser_rainer on one recent photo depicting one of Qi’s paper-plate dinners.
Looks like **** dude
— Rainer Hauser (@hauser_rainer) August 28, 2023
It should be noted that Qi has yet to be formally identified as the person responsible for the incident, one that North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper described as a “shooting” in a statement shared to Twitter, yet local authorities appear to have ripped his photo from his bio on the University's Applied Physical Sciences page.
Regardless of the assailant’s identity, we can only hope that the “armed and dangerous” person has made their way into authorities' hands … and if they are, in fact, Qi, he can use their time behind bars to make some much-needed improvements to his cooking photography skills.
This photo shows a person of interest in today’s armed and dangerous person situation. If you see this person, keep your distance, put your safety first and call 911. pic.twitter.com/NHG5CTjby4
— UNC Police (@UNCPolice) August 28, 2023
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