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Hundreds mourn slain UNC student; cops search for killer

(CNN) — Hundreds of students from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill gathered Thursday to remember student body president, Eve Carson, who was shot and killed early Wednesday morning in a suburban neighborhood near campus.

We’ve lost someone who we cherish and love. We’re all in a state of shock, UNC Chancellor James Moeser told the students, who had gathered late in the afternoon under a cloudless sky in the grassy center of campus.

The death of any parent’s child or any student is a tragedy, but this is a tragedy magnified and multiplied by the number and depths of the relationships, meaningful relationships, that Eve Carson had on this campus, he said.

Eve Carson personified the Carolina spirit. … She felt the very pulse and heartbeat of this university.

The Chapel Hill Police Department confirmed earlier Thursday that Carson, 22, had been shot and killed. Officers responding to a report of gunshots around 5 a.m. Wednesday, in a neighborhood about a mile from campus, found her body lying in an intersection, police said. Watch authorities describe finding the student’s body

Carson’s blue 2005 Toyota Highlander, which they believe was stolen during the crime, was found about a mile from where her body was found after receiving a tip, according to The Associated Press.

Toby Rice, of Chapel Hill, told AP his wife discovered the car and called 911.

We saw it on the news and we heard the woman is the president of the student body, and she goes, ‘Oh my God, I just found the car,’ Rice said.

Carson, a UNC senior and native of Athens, Georgia, was heavily involved in campus affairs. A pre-med student double majoring in political science and biology, she was a recipient of the university’s prestigious Morehead Scholarship and a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society, according to a statement from UNC.

She has been taken from us in a terrible act of violence, Moeser told the students, who stood and sat somberly in front of him, some holding yellow daisies.

We are all hurting. We are all grief-struck, stunned, he said.

He said counselors will be made available for students, with nearby Duke University sending additional counselors to help.

An August YouTube video from a student-produced television news program, Carolina Week, shows Carson, smiling and gregarious, welcoming students back from summer break. She gave a video tour of the student legislative and executive offices.

I’ve really found that my experience has been enriched by the ways that we give back to our communities and our campus, she said on camera, sitting in her office, which overlooked one of the main roads through the university.

Also, I personally invite you to come hang out with me, she said, swiveling in her chair. I spend a lot of time in this office, and I love saying, ‘hi,’ and meeting new people. If I can help you, or if I can help you figure out how you want to get involved on campus, please come by, and let’s talk.

The Tar Heels scheduled a candlelight vigil for Carson on Thursday night in the campus pit — a common meeting place for students — Moeser said.

Let us be the university that Eve Carson envisioned, he said. E-mail to a friend

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U.S. commander: Al Qaeda is trying

WASHINGTON (AP) — Al Qaeda terrorists may be plotting more urgently to attack the United States to maintain their credibility and ability to recruit followers, the U.S. military commander in charge of domestic defense said Thursday.

Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, chief of the U.S. Northern Command, also told reporters he has not seen any direct threats tied to the U.S. presidential elections. But he said it would be rash to think that such threats are not there.

We need only to look at Spain and see that they’re certainly willing to try to do something that is significant that could affect an election process, Renuart said. I think it would be imprudent of us to let down our guard believing that if there’s no credible threat that you know of today, there won’t be something tomorrow.

While he said that U.S. authorities have thwarted attacks on a number of occasions, he said terrorist cells may be working harder than ever to plot high-impact events. He did not point to any specific intelligence that authorities have received but said the chatter they are hearing gives me no reason to believe they’re going to slow down in their efforts to target the U.S.

If an organization like that is to maintain credibility and continue to grow more of its extremists, it has to show tangible results, Renuart said. So I think there may be a certain sense of urgency among that organization to have an effect. So it would tell me that they’re trying harder.

Asked about the terror threat, Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said, There continues to be no credible information telling us about an imminent threat to homeland at this time.

In July, U.S. intelligence analysts, in a threat assessment, concluded that al Qaeda has rebuilt its operating capability to a level not seen since just before the September 11 terrorist attacks. The report said the terror network has regrouped along the Afghan-Pakistan border, but it also noted that officials knew of no specific credible threat of an attack on U.S. soil.

About the same time, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff raised eyebrows when he said he had a gut feeling that the United States faced a heightened risk of attack.

On Thursday, however, Chertoff said the U.S. has successfully lowered the risk of a large-scale domestic terrorist attack for the near future.

We have significantly reduced the risk of a major attack in the short term, Chertoff told a group of editors at The Washington Post in a report posted online Thursday.

Chertoff said the U.S. effort was one of the reasons there has been an increase in attacks by Islamic extremists in Europe. Improvements in U.S. traveler screening and border security have shifted the focus of al Qaeda operatives and sympathizers to Europe, he said.

Renuart said that of the more than a dozen daily events that Northern Command responds to — ranging from natural disasters to threats — two or three may have the potential to be terrorist incidents.

The chatter, which included public audio and video tapes released on the Internet by al Qaeda leaders, suggests that they are looking for a way to have a big impact again, he said. Pressed for details, he said the chatter was more common but whether that’s louder or more ominous, I’m not sure I’m ready to draw that conclusion.

He did, however, repeat his assertion — which he first made last July — that he believes there are al Qaeda cells or sympathizers within the United States.

President George W. Bush, in a speech, also said the United States remained under threat from terrorists. Marking the fifth anniversary of the creation of the Homeland Security Department, Bush said that in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks it was hard to imagine that we would reach this milestone without another attack on our homeland.

Yet he said, On this anniversary, we must also remember that the danger to our country has not passed. Since the attacks of 9/11, the terrorists have tried to strike our homeland again and again. We’ve disrupted numerous planned attacks — including a plot to fly an airplane into the tallest building on the West Coast and another to blow up passenger jets headed for America across the Atlantic Ocean.

Bush said the lesson is clear: The enemy remains active, deadly in its intent — and in the face of this danger, the United States must never let down its guard. E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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