CHARLOTTE, N.C. _ The two UNC Charlotte students killed in a campus shooting Tuesday evening were Ellis Parlier, 19, of Midland, and Riley Howell, 21, of Waynesville, the university confirmed Wednesday morning.
UNC Charlotte also identified the four injured students as: Rami Alramadhan, 20, of Saihat, Saudia Arabia; Sean Dehart, 20, of Apex, N.C.; Emily Houpt, 23, of Charlotte; and Drew Pescaro, 19, of Apex.
With a suspect in custody following the shooting at UNC Charlotte, investigators continued to piece together how and why the students were shot during a class on science and technology.
The suspect, identified by police as Trystan Andrew Terrell, 22, was taken into custody in the Kennedy Hall classroom within minutes of the 5:40 p.m. shooting on the last day of spring classes.
A campus lockdown was lifted before midnight Tuesday, but exams were canceled through Sunday and non-essential employees were told to stay home Wednesday.
Three of the four injured students were in critical condition. Pescaro was among the injured but had since been released from the hospital, according to his fraternity and the UNCC student newspaper.
Ellis was a 2017 graduate of the Central Academy of Technology and Arts in Union County, a school district spokeswoman said.
A friend of Parlier's family told The Observer the family would have no comment.
A relative of Riley Howell also asked for privacy for his family.
The shooter was armed with a handgun but was "not somebody on our radar," campus police Chief Jeff Baker told reporters. Baker would not say whether the suspect targeted certain students or fired at random.
Terrell has no previous criminal record in North Carolina, according to state records. He has a first appearance in court scheduled for Thursday afternoon.
He's charged with two counts of murder, four counts of attempted first-degree murder, four counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, discharging a firearm on educational property and possession of a gun on educational property, according to jail records.
Public records show that Terrell lived in an apartment complex on Weddington Avenue, in Charlotte's Elizabeth neighborhood, but several residents told The Observer he lived in an apartment in NoDa. A TV station in Texas reported that Terrell had previously attended high school in northern Texas.
Terrell He attended Central Piedmont Community College before transferring to UNC Charlotte, a CPCC spokesman said. WBTV, The Charlotte Observer's news partner, reported that Terrell had withdrawn from all classes at UNC Charlotte last semester, except for the class in which the shootings took place.
WBTV, quoting the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office, tweeted that the department had issued Terrell a gun purchase permit last Oct. 23 after passing criminal history and mental health background checks. Sheriff's spokeswoman Tonya Rivens told The Observer she could not confirm that information, citing state confidentiality laws for permit holders.
The shooting took place inside Kennedy Hall, on the east end of campus. The building is home to UNCC's Center for Teaching and Learning, which focuses on innovating teaching methods. The high-tech classroom is centrally located in the building, with big glass windows that peer inside Room 236.
Anthropology instructor Adam Patrick Johnson tweeted that it occurred during his class, LBST 2213: Science, Technology & Society.
"My students are so special to me and I am devastated," he said on Twitter. Students were conducting team presentations as part of the lesson at the time, he said.
UNCC describes itself as an urban research university with more than 29,000 students from 85 countries, and is part of the UNC public university system. It offers undergraduate, graduate and professional programs.
University Chancellor Philip Dubois called Tuesday "the worst day in the history of UNC Charlotte."
"This shakes us to our very core," he said.
