Myra-Grace Greene said she had planned to attend a watch party for the reality show "Love Island" and was looking forward to the event.
"I was invited to watch 'Love Island', and I was really excited," Greene said.
About 25 minutes into the show, the atmosphere changed abruptly. Greene said she witnessed students reacting to a man who had entered the area.
"I just see this man and hear a lot of the students ran after him," Greene said.
As concern spread among those attending the event, students rushed to leave the building.
"There's only two exits, and he's covering one of them. So, we're all making a mad dash. About 80 kids to this one exit. And there's chairs flying everywhere. People are falling," Greene said.
All students attending the watch party were able to leave safely, according to those interviewed. Still, Greene said the incident has affected her sense of security.
"My safety feels kind of compromised in a sense, because I understand anyone can really come on the campus, but to that degree," she said.
Students replayed what happened Tuesday night.
Makhi Nash, president of the Black Student Movement at UNC and one of the event's organizers, said attendees became alarmed when the man appeared to reach into a bag.
"When I saw him, because I was sitting closer to the front, he had some aerosol of something, and then he reached into a bag, and that's when it was assumed that he had a weapon of some sort and that the students ducked down across and got under a desk," Nash said.
Nash criticized the university's response to the incident.
"We wish that the university had more accountability. We wish that the police had responded sooner. We wish that they had sent out Alert Carolina just to alert students who are not even at this event that this man was on campus," he said.
Video recorded by another student showed the suspect on campus screaming and lunging at students before entering Greenlaw Hall, where the event was held. Nash said the man also used racial slurs.
"There was some racial aspect to it. But I cannot say definitively that this was a targeted event. I can say that this was a predominantly African-American, African descent event that was hosted," Nash said.
A university spokesperson told our newsgathering partners at The News & Observer that the man, who is not affiliated with the university, was arrested and admitted to a hospital because of mental distress. The spokesperson said the man will face charges of disorderly conduct, vandalism, damage to property and assault after being released from the hospital.
Student Body President Devin Duncan also issued a statement to the campus community about the incident.
"I think we need to weigh how students felt during this time and where the system did not meet their sense of safety on our campus. To me, that's my No. 1thing," Duncan said.
Twenty-four hours after the suspect was taken into custody, leaders of Black student organizations met to discuss collaboration and campus safety. Among them was Samuel Fuh, vice president of the UNC chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers.
"Even in a tragedy, a tragic event like last night, these organizations and the people in them really chose to make the most of it, to make sure that we continue to advocate for the black and brown students on campus, continue to advocate for students in general," Fuh said.
In an online post Tuesday night, UNC Campus Police said there was no broader threat to campus, and that the situation did not require an Alert Carolina notification.
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