Two dead in US campus shooting
Cops at North Carolina varsity race over to site and bring down suspect
CHARLOTTE: A man armed with a pistol opened fire on students at a North Carolina university during the last day of classes, killing two people and wounding four, police said. Officers who had gathered ahead of a campus concert raced over and disarmed the suspect.
The shooting prompted a lockdown at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte and caused widespread panic across campus as students scrambled to take shelter.
“Just loud bangs. A couple loud bangs and then we just saw everyone run out of the building, like nervous, like a scared run like they were looking behind,” said Antonio Rodriguez, 24, who was visiting the campus for an art show.
Campus Police Chief Jeff Baker said authorities received a call in the late afternoon that a suspect armed with a pistol had shot several students. He said officers assembling nearby for a concert rushed to the classroom building and arrested the gunman in the room where the shooting took place.
“Our officers’ actions definitely saved lives,” Baker said at a news conference.
He said two people were killed and three remained in critical condition late on Tuesday.
He said a fourth person’s injuries were less serious. Students were among the victims, but officials would not say how many.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department identified the suspect as Trystan Andrew Terrell, 22. They said he’s in custody with charges pending.
Monifa Drayton, an adjunct professor, was walking onto campus when she heard the shots.
She said she directed students fleeing the scene to take cover inside a parking deck.
The suspect’s grandfather, Paul Rold of Arlington, Texas, said that Terrell and his father moved to Charlotte from the Dallas area about two years ago after his mother died.
Terrell taught himself French and Portuguese with the help of a language learning programme he bought him and was attending UNC-Charlotte, Rold said.
But Terrell never showed any interest in guns or other weapons and the news he might have been involved in a mass shooting was stunning, said Rold, who had not heard about the Charlotte attack before being contacted by a reporter.
“You’re describing someone foreign to me,” Rold said. “This is not in his DNA.”