Police release Teheri-azar 911 call

Since 03-13-06

March 10. 2006

Meiling Arounnarath, Staff Writer

Update: Authorities have released the 911 call by Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar.

The UNC-Chapel Hill graduate charged with driving into a lunchtime campus crowd Friday is scheduled to be in court today, accused of what some students are condemning as an act of terrorism.

Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, 22, deliberately drove a rented Jeep Cherokee into the Pit area outside the Student Union, hitting nine people just before noon, police say. Six people suffered minor injuries; three others declined to be treated.

At roughly the same spot and time today, students plan to hold an anti-terrorism rally.

"We don't want terrorism here, and we're not gonna stand for that where we live and where we go to school," said Kris Wampler, a member of the College Republicans.

Wampler is organizing the rally with Jillian Bandes, an undergraduate fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a nonpartisan policy institute dedicated to protecting "democratic societies under assault by terrorism and Militant Islamism," according to its Web site.

UNC-CH Police Chief Derek Poarch has said Taheri-azar, a native of Iran, intentionally hit people to "avenge the deaths of Muslims around the world."

Taheri-azar is charged with nine counts of attempted first-degree murder and nine counts of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury with intent to kill. He was being held Sunday in Raleigh's Central Prison with bail set at $5.5 million.

Wampler said the Muslim Students Association and the Young Democrats have been invited to participate in the rally today. He said organizers are urging the university administration to call Friday's incident an act of terrorism.

Sunday afternoon, however, students interviewed on campus seemed to have the Tar Heels' Saturday night basketball victory over rival Duke more on their minds than Friday's incident.

Carolina's win brought an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 people rushing onto Franklin Street, according to police.

"It was poor timing, but our [Tar Heel] boys really brought us together last night," sophomore Kelton Wright said, reading near The Pit. "I think it shook us a bit, and last night was a good way of getting out all of our jitters."

Police had received reports of two people treated for minor injuries and one report of property damage to a downtown business, Lt. Milton Durham said.

But Staci Griner, 21, said she still hasn't shaken the feeling of "one of our own" attacking students on campus.

"It's crazy," she said. "You feel kind of removed from the bigger attacks, like 9/11, because they're not in your immediate town. We walk around and meet people and never think it's one of our own.

"I feel like the whole world is falling apart."