Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
N.C. college shooting kills two students
CHARLOTTE, N.C — A North Carolina college student tackled a gunman who opened fire in a classroom, saving others’ lives but losing his own in the process, the police chief said Wednesday.
Riley Howell, 21, was among the students gathered for end-of-year presentations in an anthropology class at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte when a man pulled a pistol and began shooting students. Howell and another student were killed; four others were wounded.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney said Howell “took the assailant off his feet” but was fatally wounded while doing so.
“You’re either going to run, you’re going to hide and shield, or you’re going to take the fight to the assailant,” Putney said. “Having no place to run and hide, he did the last. … His sacrifice saved lives.”
Suspect Trystan Andrew Terrell had been enrolled at the school but withdrew during the current semester, UNC-Charlotte spokesman Buffy Stephens said.
Terrell, 22, under observation in police custody, was charged with two counts of murder, four counts of attempted murder and other charges. No motive for the shooting had been determined as of late Wednesday.
In a news release, UNC-Charlotte said all of the victims were students, five were from North Carolina and one was an international student. Howell of Waynesville and Ellis R. Parlier, 19, of Midland were killed in the attack. Those injured were Sean Dehart, 20, and Drew Pescaro, 19, both of Apex; Emily Houpt, 23, of Charlotte; and Rami Alramadhan, 20, of Saihat, Saudi Arabia.