‘Just shot them’

Chilling words from N.C. campus gunman

His matter-of-fact statement was almost as chilling as his deadly attack.

A 22-year-old gunman accused of killing two students and wounding four others at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte on Tuesday admitted, “I just went into a classroom and shot the guys” as he was led away in handcuffs.

Ellis Parlier, 19, and Riley Howell, 21, lost their lives, according to the university, and three of the wounded victims were in critical condition Wednesday. Parlier hailed from Midland, N.C., and Howell was from Waynesville.

Trystan Andrew Terrell was jailed in Mecklenburg County on two counts of murder, four counts of attempted murder and other charges. He will make his first court appearance Thursday.

Police officers, nearby for a concert, rushed to the classroom building and arrested Terrell (photo) in the room where the shooting occurred.

“Our officers' actions definitely saved lives,” campus Police Chief Jeff Baker said at news conference Tuesday.

Students were gathered for endof-year presentations in an anthropology class when the attack took place.

Terrell, a former student at the school, did not know Parlier or Howell, according to NBC in Charlotte. The four wounded were identified as students Sean Dehart, 20, and Drew Pescaro, 19, both of Apex; Emily Houpt, 23, of Charlotte, and Rami Alramadhan, 20, of Saudia Arabia. Pescaro has been released from the hospital, according to The Charlotte Observer.

Terrell was taken into custody in the classroom on the last day of spring classes.

Terrell was armed with a handgun but was “not somebody on our radar,” Chief Baker told the Observer.

“You're describing someone foreign to me,” the suspect's grandfather Paul Rold told The Associated Press. “This is not in his DNA.”

Rold said Terrell had never showed any interest in guns or other weapons.

The Texas resident said Terrell and his father moved to Charlotte from the Dallas area about two years ago, after his mother died.

Adjunct Prof. Monifa Drayton said she was walking onto campus when she heard the shots.

“My thought was, I've lived my life, I've had a really good life, so, these students deserve the same,” she said. “And so, whatever I could do to help any child to safety, that's what I was going to do.”