Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Vigil Planned After 2 Killed, 4 Wounded in Campus Shooting
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 5 years ago on
May 1, 2019

Share

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A shooting that killed two and wounded four at a North Carolina university left students scrambling for shelter and prompted fresh calls for ways to keep campuses safe.

A vigil was planned for Wednesday on the campus of the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, where the shooting on Tuesday upended the last day of class. The governor vowed a hard look at what happened in order to prevent future shootings.

“A student should not have to fear for his or her life when they are on our campuses,” Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, told reporters. “Parents should not have to worry about their students when they send them off to school. And I know that this violence has to stop. … In the coming days we will take a hard look at all of this to see what we need to do going forward.”

Gunman Arrested in Room Where Shooting Took Place

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. 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.

Two people were killed, and three remained in critical condition late Tuesday. Baker 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. 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.

“I heard one final gunshot and I saw all the children running toward me,” she said. “We started to get all the children pulled into the second floor of the parking deck and the rationale was if we’re in the parking deck and there’s a shooter and we don’t know where he is, he won’t have a clear shot.”

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

The shooting prompted a lockdown and caused panic across campus.

“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 campus for his friend’s art show.

Relative Said Suspect Had Shown No Interest in Guns

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 program his grandfather bought him and was attending UNC-Charlotte, Rold said. But Terrell never showed any interest in guns or other weapons and the news he may have been involved in a mass shooting was stunning, said Rold, who had not heard about the Charlotte attack before being contacted by an Associated Press reporter.

“You’re describing someone foreign to me,” Rold said in a telephone interview Tuesday night. “This is not in his DNA.”

Shortly after UNC Charlotte issued a campus lockdown, aerial shots from local television news outlets showed police officers running toward a building, while another view showed students running on a campus sidewalk.

The university has more than 26,500 students and 3,000 faculty and staff. The campus is northeast of the city center and is surrounded by residential areas.

Spenser Gray, a junior, said she was watching another student’s presentation in a nearby campus building when the alert about the shooting popped up on everyone’s computer screens.

She said she panicked: “We had no idea where he was … so we were just expecting them at any moment coming into the classroom.”

Susan Harden, an UNCC professor and Mecklenburg County Commissioner, was at home when she heard of the shooting. She went to a staging area, she said, to provide support.

Harden said she has taught inside the Kennedy building, where the shootings occurred.

“It breaks my heart. We’re torn up about what’s happened,” Harden said. “Students should be able to learn in peace and in safety and professors ought to be able to do their jobs in safety.”

DON'T MISS

Liberal Icon Bernie Sanders Is Running for Senate Reelection, Squelching Retirement Rumors

DON'T MISS

Thief Uses Sleight of Hand to Swipe $255K Tiffany Ring, Cops Say

DON'T MISS

California Reports the First Increase in Groundwater Supplies in 4 Years

DON'T MISS

Fresno Charter School Wants to Increase Enrollment. But Are Its Students Lagging Their Peers?

DON'T MISS

Lawsuit Alleges Decades of Child Sex Abuse at Illinois Juvenile Detention Centers Statewide

DON'T MISS

Texas Soldier Arrested in Russia on Theft Charges After Unexpected Detour

DON'T MISS

Fresno Detectives Arrest Motorcycle Club Leader on Arson, Gun Charges

DON'T MISS

Pulitzer Prizes in Journalism Awarded to The New York Times, The Washington Post, AP and Others

DON'T MISS

Hamas Accepts Gaza Cease-Fire; Israel Launches Strikes in Rafah

DON'T MISS

Tom Brady’s Netflix Roast Features Lots of Jabs and a Belichick-Kraft Reunion

UP NEXT

Pulitzer Prizes in Journalism Awarded to The New York Times, The Washington Post, AP and Others

UP NEXT

A Subset of Alzheimer’s May Be Caused by Two Copies of a Single Gene: New Research

UP NEXT

Liar, Liar: Potential Trump VP Pick Noem’s Claims Are on Fire

UP NEXT

Merced’s Treacherous ‘Tunnel Lane’ Removed from Northbound Highway 99

UP NEXT

US Airstrike Targeting Al-Qaida Leader in Syria Killed a Farmer, American Military Says

UP NEXT

Another State Department Official Resigns Over Biden’s Gaza Policy

UP NEXT

Senators Want Limits on Government’s Use of Facial Recognition Technology for Airport Screening

UP NEXT

Biden Says ‘Order Must Prevail’ on Campuses, but He Won’t Send National Guard

UP NEXT

Police Dismantle UCLA Tent Camp, Take Pro-Palestinian Protesters Into Custody

UP NEXT

Fresno State’s Randa Jarrar Dragged Out of Event Featuring Big Bang Theory’s Mayim Bialik

Fresno Charter School Wants to Increase Enrollment. But Are Its Students Lagging Their Peers?

58 mins ago

Lawsuit Alleges Decades of Child Sex Abuse at Illinois Juvenile Detention Centers Statewide

1 hour ago

Texas Soldier Arrested in Russia on Theft Charges After Unexpected Detour

2 hours ago

Fresno Detectives Arrest Motorcycle Club Leader on Arson, Gun Charges

2 hours ago

Pulitzer Prizes in Journalism Awarded to The New York Times, The Washington Post, AP and Others

2 hours ago

Hamas Accepts Gaza Cease-Fire; Israel Launches Strikes in Rafah

3 hours ago

Tom Brady’s Netflix Roast Features Lots of Jabs and a Belichick-Kraft Reunion

3 hours ago

CA Limits How Police Respond to Protests. Why Were Bean Bag Shotguns Used at UCLA?

3 hours ago

Trump Surrogates Make a Dangerous Call for China Regime Change: Fareed Zakaria

4 hours ago

Turbocharged Titans: How the Porsche 934 and 935 Dominated the Track for 50 Years

5 hours ago

Liberal Icon Bernie Sanders Is Running for Senate Reelection, Squelching Retirement Rumors

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont announced Monday he will run for reelection this year, squelching speculation that the 82-year-old progressiv...

5 mins ago

6 mins ago

Liberal Icon Bernie Sanders Is Running for Senate Reelection, Squelching Retirement Rumors

20 mins ago

Thief Uses Sleight of Hand to Swipe $255K Tiffany Ring, Cops Say

57 mins ago

California Reports the First Increase in Groundwater Supplies in 4 Years

58 mins ago

Fresno Charter School Wants to Increase Enrollment. But Are Its Students Lagging Their Peers?

1 hour ago

Lawsuit Alleges Decades of Child Sex Abuse at Illinois Juvenile Detention Centers Statewide

2 hours ago

Texas Soldier Arrested in Russia on Theft Charges After Unexpected Detour

2 hours ago

Fresno Detectives Arrest Motorcycle Club Leader on Arson, Gun Charges

2 hours ago

Pulitzer Prizes in Journalism Awarded to The New York Times, The Washington Post, AP and Others

MENU

CONNECT WITH US

Search

Send this to a friend