On March 3, 2006, Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar intentionally hit people with a sport utility vehicle on the campus of the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill to "avenge the deaths of Muslims worldwide" and to "punish" the United States government.

[2] In one letter, Taheri-azar wrote, "I was aiming to follow in the footsteps of one of my role models, Mohamed Atta, one of the 9/11 hijackers, who obtained a doctorate degree.

[5] While not readily accessible to vehicular traffic beyond a narrow service road, the barricades that normally prevent cars from approaching the Pit were not in place on the day of the attack.

Later that afternoon, officials evacuated the apartment complex where Taheri-azar lived, then stormed the unit while media helicopters circled overhead.

Along with the letter described in the 911 call, officials found his UNC diploma folded in his closet, and the Carolina blue graduation gown used just three months before.

On March 6, 2006, when he appeared in an Orange County courtroom, he stated that he would defend himself, and that he looked forward to the opportunity of sharing the will of Allah.

[8] Although Taheri-azar was born on May 3, 1983, in Tehran, the capital of Iran, he is a naturalized U.S. citizen who moved to the United States at the age of two.

One Muslim student, Atif Mohiuddin, recalled Taheri-azar as being "anti-Arabic" and never using the standard Arabic greeting of Assalaamu Alaikum.

[15] While UNC Chancellor James Moeser described Taheri-azar's attack as one of violence in an internal email to the university community, he stopped short of calling it a full-fledged act of terror.