HAMPTON, Va. — Former Hampton University Assistant Dean, Marisa Porto recently began working at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill as the John S. and James L. Knight Chair in Local News and Sustainability.
In a post on LinkedIn, Professor Porto described the moment the campus alert went out about Monday's fatal shooting on campus.
She said she woke up grateful that students and staff at the journalism school are safe, but is "gutted" by the loss of faculty advisor Zijie Yan.
Graduate student Tailei Qi, 34, was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder and having a gun on educational property. He's accused of shooting Yan inside the science building.
The shooting sent the school into an hours-long lockdown.
Porto wrote:
"I saw students running into buildings nearby. Then the campus went silent. Occasionally, I saw police officers. A helicopter circled the area, coming so close to the building that I could feel the windows shake."
Porto, who used to work at the Virginian Pilot, said the tragedy reminds her of the worst moment of her career - losing staff members in a shooting at a sister organization, the Capital Gazette in Maryland.
In 2018, the gunman, Jarrod Ramos shot and killed five employees.
Porto posted videos on X of UNC students streaming out of buildings once an all clear was issued Monday.
She walked out feeling "dazed and numb," exchanged words with a colleague and wrote, "Then I climbed into my car and began to cry."