Two dead, four injured in shooting at University of North Carolina, Charlotte

By Greg Lacour

 

video screenshot

 

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Reuters) - Two people were killed and four others wounded, three critically, in a shooting on Tuesday at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, officials said.

 

Police said one suspect, who some local media reported was a student at the school, was taken into custody following the rampage on the last day of classes for the academic year. Final exams were scheduled for next week.

 

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department spokeswoman Sandy D'Elosua said the individual who was arrested was believed to have acted alone.

Television station WBTV in Charlotte reported that gunfire erupted about 5:45 p.m. (2145 GMT) near the university's Kennedy Hall administrative building, and that one person had been arrested.

 

Two people were killed and several others wounded when a suspect opened fire at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte on Tuesday, local media reported, adding that the suspect was taken into custody. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).

 

"We are in shock to learn of an active shooter situation on the campus of UNC Charlotte. 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," Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles said on Twitter.

 

Susan Harden, a professor of education on campus since 2011 who also serves on the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners, expressed disbelief at the gun violence.

 

“This is a day at the end of the semester, when students are doing performances, presentations ... this is just the worst thing,” said Harden said at the police staging area. “Our campus is so safe. So safe. I’ve never felt unsafe on our campus. I’m heartbroken.”

 

She added, “I’ve got a student who’s barricaded in her dorm right now.”

 

Mecklenburg Emergency Management Services, an independent agency that handles emergency services for the county, confirmed on Twitter that two people were dead on the scene and that four others were taken to a hospital, two of them with life-threatening injuries.

 

A spokesman, Lester Oliva, also confirmed the casualty toll.

 

“Absolutely heartbroken to learn of the two deaths at UNC-Charlotte. Details still unfolding, but prayers with those receiving medical care right now,” U.S. Representative Mark Walker, a Republican from North Carolina, said on Twitter.

 

WSOC-TV reported that the shooter was a student at the university.

 

The suspect was not immediately identified by police, who set up a media staging area near the school.

 

“Run, Hide, Fight. Secure yourself immediately,” the university said on Twitter shortly before 6 p.m. The school said later on its website the campus was on lockdown and that students and staff should “remain in a safe location.”

 

Video footage aired on local television and posted to social media showed scenes - increasingly familiar with the rise of school gun violence in the United States - of students evacuating campus buildings with their hands raised as police officers ran past them towards the scene of the shooting.

 

A spokeswoman for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department confirmed there had been an active shooter at the university but declined to give any further information.

 

According to its website, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte enrolls more than 26,500 students and employees 3,000 faculty and staff.

 

The deadliest mass shooting on a campus of higher education in the United States took place at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Virginia, on April 16, 2007, when a South Korean student killed 32 people in a shooting rampage, before killing himself.

 

(Reporting by Greg Lacour; Additional reporting by Steve Gorman and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Editing by James Dalgleish, Peter Cooney and Cynthia Osterman)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-05-01

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I am a little tired of hearing about the second amendment right to bear arms. What about the rights of innocent people not to get shot? It seems to be almost a weekly thing these days.

It seems this is, for many, the price there is to pay, to have the privilege to bear arms. 

 

This is something, unless one is American, unattainable to understand. 

 

Impossible to debate as well. 

I am a little tired of hearing about the second amendment right to bear arms. What about the rights of innocent people not to get shot? It seems to be almost a weekly thing these days.

I am a strong supporter of all of our constitutionally protected and outlined rights... that said... I too am having a harder and harder time with all these shootings..

However, what I do also think is that our rights don’t exist in a vacuum or as a static notion per se and I think must/should be interpreted relative to the time of our existence.

I get it that for those strong constitutionalists nearly any amendment/regulation or the like, to the “gun issue” will look/feel like an impingement on said right.... but.... I do think that from a larger societal viewpoint that there is some room for compromise if you will.. things like universal background checks as one example. I do agree that no matter what is done, short it literally anything short of seizing and taking away all guns (which given the sheer size and fact that a percentage are held illegally) there will always be the opportunity for gun-based violence.

However, as a baseline position, I do not think the government has nor should have the right, through law, to effectively limit a citizens rights to “bear arms”

I guess in the end I’m not a “all or none” kind of guy on that I don’t think it’s workable, long term, to have either a wholly unregulated gun environment, nor one where there is a complete and total seizure/ban on them either.
I think there’s got to a middle ground that preserves, in principle, the core constitutional rights of citizens but also fairly protects the public as well.


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According to Trumps recent ramblings on what happened in Paris all it needed was one good man with a gun and things could have turned out different. Funny how we never hear of that happening in the US despite the presence of hundreds of guns in any location. And the shootings just keep on coming.......

48 minutes ago, luckyluke said:

It seems this is, for many, the price there is to pay, to have the privilege to bear arms. 

 

This is something, unless one is American, unattainable to understand. 

 

Impossible to debate as well. 

 

Let me help.

Study after study after study shows that the vast majority of Americans are in favor of gun control. So what’s preventing such legislation—which can be done without breaching the 2nd Amendment—from being enacted? Various local,  state and federal congresspeople, the vast majority of them Republican, but a good number of Dems and independents as well, are beholden, not to their voters, but to pro gun interests.

 

It’s really that simple. You don’t have to be American to understand it.

 

Also, the 2nd A is not God’s law. It’s Man’s law—it too can be changed.

Edited May 1, 20197 yr by Thakkar
Added 2nd to last para.

There is nothing inconsistent with preserving the Second Amendment and having sensible laws regulating firearms.  I keep hearing how the USA so exceeds other developed nations with gun violence.  So, it seems to me that the USA needs a better regulatory system of firearm ownership to ensure that the only people possessing them are people we can entrust them with. 

 

Geez, even the First Amendment's right to free speech has a few exceptions to it. 

Rights before lives. The American way.

58 minutes ago, luckyluke said:

This is something, unless one is American, unattainable to understand. 

Yes, many things about Americans are unattainable to understand to the rest of the human race.

 

They certainly are in a class of their own lol.  

11 minutes ago, jak2002003 said:

1 hour ago, luckyluke said:

This is something, unless one is American, unattainable to understand. 

Yes, many things about Americans are unattainable to understand to the rest of the human race.

 

They certainly are in a class of their own lol.  

 

The only thing people don’t understand about Americans is why Americans think they are so special. This is true of other nationalities. Thais keep telling me I don’t understand this or that —what I see as—absurdity because I’m not Thai. Thing is, I’m as capable as anyone in resolving an absurdity in my head to make it seem sane. I just choose not to.

With a bit of luck the legal moves currently being made against the NRA will take that particular nest of poison out of US political influence.

 

The necessary debate on gun laws might then take place. 

Just arm all the teachers and students. 

52 minutes ago, Tonyt00 said:

Just arm all the teachers and students. 

 

Don’t forget the janitors and lunch ladies! Good guys with mops can’t stop bad guys with guns!

4 hours ago, Tonyt00 said:

Just arm all the teachers and students. 

Most mass shootings take place in Gun Free Zones.

I wanted to say ALL but I am sure somebody would find the exception.

Thoughts and prayers, blablabla

Now is not the time to discuss stricter gun laws, blablabla

If only more people had guns, they could have stopped the killer, blablabla

And so on, and so forth.

 

Where will this madness end? When will the gun nuts and their lobby be stopped? Unfortunately, not under this president, that's for sure. Hope the people in the USA will wake up some day soon and realize that something drastic needs to be done about this.

According to statistics, gun owners have the highest rate of being killed by the gun they themselves own. Not a burglar, not a mass shooter, and the #1 manner of death of course is they end up shooting themselves intentionally (suicide). So before you go out and buy a gun, know that you're the person it is most likely going to kill. not to mention your curious toddler or pre-schooler who finds your weapon's hiding place while you're taking a nap. 

5 hours ago, Thakkar said:

 

The only thing people don’t understand about Americans is why Americans think they are so special. This is true of other nationalities. Thais keep telling me I don’t understand this or that —what I see as—absurdity because I’m not Thai. Thing is, I’m as capable as anyone in resolving an absurdity in my head to make it seem sane. I just choose not to.

I am an American and have never told you or anyone else I am special. Your slanted comment lacks merit on that alone.

The shooter's name is Trystan Andrew Terrell and he's apparently autistic.  Which means the gun lobby will be pushing the mentally ill angle.  In the mean time, more dead Americans.  Won't be the last.

Two shot dead doesn't qualify as a "rampage", at least in USA, that is. Just business as usual in my home country.

48 minutes ago, Benmart said:

I am an American and have never told you or anyone else I am special. Your slanted comment lacks merit on that alone.

 

This response illustrates what I meant. You took a general comment and made all about you personally...

9 hours ago, darksidedog said:

I am a little tired of hearing about the second amendment right to bear arms. What about the rights of innocent people not to get shot? It seems to be almost a weekly thing these days.

Here’s the thing, even if they did away completely with the second amendment and would make possession of any firearm illegal this wouldn’t stop! All it would do is create a black market. Look at prohibition in the 1920s. Drugs are illegal, too, and they’re still widely available in the US. 

6 minutes ago, pacovl46 said:

Here’s the thing, even if they did away completely with the second amendment and would make possession of any firearm illegal this wouldn’t stop! All it would do is create a black market. Look at prohibition in the 1920s. Drugs are illegal, too, and they’re still widely available in the US. 

This is a version of “if you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns.” Think about that. What they're saying is that criminals don't respect laws. Let the “brilliance” of that argument sink in.

 

Laws, restrictions and sanctions affect everyone, including criminals. Otherwise, why have any laws at all? The existence of criminals is the very reason for criminal laws.

 

Removing legal guns from American homes will immediately reduce by a quarter million (every year!) the number of guns in the hands of criminals because that's the number of guns stolen in burglaries every year, most of which are never recovered. (http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/fshbopc0510.pdf)

 

Severely restricting gun ownership will make guns more expensive and harder to obtain, even for criminals.

 

No matter how you slice it, tighter gun laws = fewer guns and fewer guns = fewer gun deaths. So, again, the bottom line question is this: how many thousands of avoidable American deaths (yearly!) is your second amendment right worth?

 

In the absence of gun control, what we have is an ever escalating civilian arms race with no end in sight. Everyone armed to the teeth and living in constant fear is no way to go through life.

Guns, guns and yet more guns.

Will nobody ever have the guts to make a real stand against these never ending atrocities?

I doubt it. Votes are votes are votes.

9 hours ago, Thakkar said:

 

Let me help.

Study after study after study shows that the vast majority of Americans are in favor of gun control. So what’s preventing such legislation—which can be done without breaching the 2nd Amendment—from being enacted? Various local,  state and federal congresspeople, the vast majority of them Republican, but a good number of Dems and independents as well, are beholden, not to their voters, but to pro gun interests.

 

It’s really that simple. You don’t have to be American to understand it.

 

Also, the 2nd A is not God’s law. It’s Man’s law—it too can be changed.

There is a good reason for US gun laws, ISIS, Al Quaeda, IRA, Palestine, radical Islam, the Gulf War, ,....the list is long. 

 

Follow the money.

 

 

Edited May 1, 20197 yr by Grusa

shooting fellow students or co-workers like it happens so often...in some country, i really wonder if it's still news. if people are allowed to buy weapons as much as they want, what can be expected?

Unfortunately the existing gun laws in the United States are not enforced.  Stupid as it sounds but more laws don't seem to be the answer until the existing laws are enforced.  For an example of this look at the traffic laws in Thailand.  Not enforced, not followed!

11 minutes ago, HappyinNE said:

Unfortunately the existing gun laws in the United States are not enforced.  Stupid as it sounds but more laws don't seem to be the answer until the existing laws are enforced.  For an example of this look at the traffic laws in Thailand.  Not enforced, not followed!

 

It’s hard to have good faith discussions with republicans when they argue, after every mass shooting, that we need no new gun laws criminals will simply ignore; we just need to enforce laws already on the books. Except when it comes to voting restrictions, we need new laws on top of those they complain the state is already not enforcing.

11 hours ago, darksidedog said:

I am a little tired of hearing about the second amendment right to bear arms. What about the rights of innocent people not to get shot? It seems to be almost a weekly thing these days.

Sorry Dog, I prefer to be an innocent legit person with my own gun. Along with 99.9% of all other gun owners.

2 hours ago, Thakkar said:

Removing legal guns from American homes will immediately reduce by a quarter million (every year!) the number of guns in the hands of criminals because that's the number of guns stolen in burglaries every year, most of which are never recovered. (http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/fshbopc0510.pdf)

 

So you gonna come kick down my door and take my Grandaddys souvenir Luger?

It’s hard to have good faith discussions with republicans when they argue, after every mass shooting, that we need no new gun laws criminals will simply ignore; we just need to enforce laws already on the books. Except when it comes to voting restrictions, we need new laws on top of those they complain the state is already not enforcing.

 

I did not say we do not need new laws, my point is it is useless to have new laws when we do not enforce the ones on the books.  I would be interested in your proposed new laws to think about after we enforce the exiting one.  By the way when discussing good faith discussions where and when did voting restrictions come from?  I can discuss that one also but to me it is not connected with gun laws.