WHEN A JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE LAREDO surged onto the campus hub known as the Pit around noon on March 3, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill students suddenly had far more to think about than the upcoming basketball game against Duke University. The driver, Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, had been planning this moment for two months. His checklist: rent a four-wheel drive vehicle so he could “run things over and keep going,” pick a time and place to inflict maximum damage (lunchtime at the teeming Pit), prepare two cans of pepper spray and a five-inch folding knife in case he got trapped, and finally, run over UNC students.

The Iranian-born Taheri-azar managed to hit nine people with his SUV. Fortunately, he didn’t succeed in seriously injuring any of them. After fleeing the scene, Taheri-azar made the peculiar decision to call 911, tell the dispatcher his precise location, and wait for police to arrest him. He told the 911 dispatcher that his actions were designed to “punish the government of the United States for [its] actions around the world,” and further intimated to police that the United States was “killing his people across the sea.” Taheri-azar continued to elaborate on his apparent Islamist motivations during his arraignment the following Monday, telling the judge that he was “thankful you are going to hear this trial to learn more about the will of Allah, the creator.” Yet Taheri-azar does not face terrorism-related charges.