TWO PEOPLE HAVE been killed and four more have been wounded in a shooting at the University of North Carolina’s Charlotte campus.
Shots were reported on campus shortly before 6:00pm yesterday evening on what was students’ last day of classes this academic year.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department identified the shooter as 22-year-old Trystan Andrew Terrell.
The University of North Carolina Charlotte UNCC campus police chief Jeff Baker told a press conference that his team “disarmed” and took custody of the suspect after receiving a call around 4:40pm that someone was “armed with a pistol”.
Local emergency services confirmed that two people were killed, while another two sustained life-threatening injuries and two more were being treated for less serious wounds.
A local Fox television affiliate identified the dead as male teenagers aged 17 and 18, although police declined to share details about the victims.
Video footage posted on social media showed anxious students filing away from the school with their hands raised.
It was not immediately clear which part of the school the shooter targeted.
“It was a really scary experience to hear the shots and have to run… I didn’t think I would have to experience something like that,” one student told NBC News.
Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles said she was “in shock” after hearing of the rampage.
“My thoughts are with the families of those who lost their lives, those injured, the entire UNCC community and the courageous first responders who sprang into action to help others,” she wrote on Twitter.
The university said on Twitter that final exams have been cancelled until Sunday.
The shooting comes just days after a teenage gunman opened fire on a synagogue in Poway, California, killing one person and injuring three others.
With reporting from - © AFP 2019
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