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Trystan Terrell: UNC-Charlotte gunman gets life in prison after guilty plea

The accused gunman who opened fire earlier this year at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte on Thursday pleaded guilty to a shooting that killed two people and left four others hurt, including two students from Apex.

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By
Alfred Charles
, WRAL.com managing editor
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The accused gunman who opened fire earlier this year at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte on Thursday pleaded guilty to a shooting that killed two people and left four others hurt, including two students from Apex.

Trystan Andrew Terrell, 23, pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder during a court appearance in a Mecklenburg County courtroom. He was ordered to serve two life sentences without the possibility of parole after the judge accepted his plea.

Without a plea deal, Terrell could have faced the death penalty, and prosecutors said in a news conference that they had planned to pursue capital punishment.

Trystan Terrell

During the hearing, Terrell said he was "so sorry" about the shooting.

Prosecutors said the suspect was burdened with student debt. He explained to them that he committed the shooting as a way to go to prison to avoid having to pay the mounting debt.

Immediately after the shooting in April, he spoke to reporters about what he did.

"I just went into a classroom and shot the guys," Terrell, told reporters as officers led him away in handcuffs.

The two victims who died were pronounced dead at the scene. They have been identified as Ellis Parlier, 19, of Midland, and Riley Howell, 21, of Waynesville.

"Today's sentence brings to justice a man wholly responsible for taking the lives of Ellis and Riley," District Attorney Spencer B. Merriweather said. "As this sentence was handed down, it ensure the man who committed these horrible crimes will never harm anyone again."

Terrell had been held without bond at the Mecklenburg County Jail after he was charged with two counts of murder, four counts of attempted murder, possessing and firing a weapon on educational property, and assault with a deadly weapon.

Two of the victims who were hurt are from the Triangle: Drew Pescaro, 19, and Sean Dehart, 20, both of Apex.

The other two victims who were injured have been identified as Rami Alramadhan, 20, of Saudi Arabia, and Emily Houpt, 23, of Charlotte.

People reacting to the sound of gunshots and a campus alert scrambled to find safe spaces and endured a lengthy lockdown as officers secured the campus on the last day of classes. Hundreds were later marched out of buildings with their hands in the air before officers determined that the suspect appeared to have acted alone.

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