‘We know each other’s pain’: UNC Charlotte readies for third anniversary of campus shooting
It’s difficult for Gabi Hitchcock to walk by the Kennedy building.
Nearly three years after the April 30, 2019, shooting on the UNC Charlotte campus, an eerie feeling haunts the 21-year-old student when she walks by.
“It’s something that I feel, a mix of something every time I walk by or even look at the building,” said Hitchcock, who was a freshman in 2019. “There’s a lot of depth and sadness.
“All I can still sometimes see is the police surrounding it.”
Hitchcock, a senior and the UNC Charlotte Student Government vice president, was tucked inside her dorm room in Oak Hall when the campus locked down because of an active shooter that day. A gunman killed two UNC Charlotte students and wounded four others in a Kennedy building classroom, a four-minute walk from Hitchcock’s room.
Trystan Terrell is serving two consecutive life sentences for killing 19-year-old Reed Parlier of Midland and Riley Howell, 21, of Waynesville. Kennedy 236, the classroom where it happened, is not in use. Friday is the beginning of this year’s Day of Remembrance, a two-day commemoration that includes a wreath laying and support sessions for faculty and staff.
For Hitchcock and her fellow seniors who were on campus that day, the third anniversary is a chance to honor and remember the victims in person after the COVID-19 pandemic prevented it in prior years. A day after the shooting, thousands packed Halton Arena on campus for a candlelight vigil.
“I didn’t know that many people went to UNC Charlotte,” Hitchcock said of the gathering. “We don’t have a lot of traditions, but that was overwhelming. It’s hard this year because we’re the last class to have seen it. We know each other’s pain. It’s an important time for all of us. Honestly, knowing we can memorialize them together this year, it gives us the time to heal together.”
‘Then it’s finally you’
Hitchcock got out of class early on April 30, 2019. Her friend heard a shooter was on campus, which eventually led to the doors to the dorm being locked. People slammed on the windows and pounded on the doors from the outside.
“It was a little bit scary because we didn’t know what was happening,” she said. “A little bit later we got a notice about a shooter on campus at Kennedy. The campus was on lockdown. So I sat in the room for five or six hours.”
Hitchcock, who is from the Oak Island area, said all she could think about was her friends and where they were on campus.
“You see this all the time, ‘Oh, it’s never going to be us,’ then it’s finally you,” said Hitchcock, who is set to graduate in May. “I received lots of texts, asking if I was OK. It’s very nerve-wracking. Maybe there was someone I know in that room.”
Hitchcock didn’t know the two students who were killed or the four who were injured: Emily Houpt of Charlotte; Rami Alramadhan of Saihat, Saudia Arabia; Sean DeHart of Apex; and Drew Pescaro of Apex.
But she does remember consoling one friend whose friend was shot.
“We were just hugging (my friend) while he was crying,” she said. “It all happened so fast. Then it felt like time moved in slow motion.”
UNC Charlotte has ‘come back to life’
Buffie Stephens, director of issues management and media relations at UNC Charlotte, said although April 30 is not on the academic calendar — it’s a Saturday — the university “will absolutely be remembering.”
“There are only a few classes on Saturday, most all are at the Dubois Center and most, if not all, are graduate-level classes,” Stephens said of April 30 not being on the 2022 academic calendar.
Events begin Friday, with a wreath laying ceremony taking place at 5:40 p.m. at the Kennedy building. Dozens have left messages of reflection on the Niner Nation Remembers web page, including Catrine Tudor-Locke, the dean of the college of Health and Human Services.
Tudor-Locke had signed a contract April 25, 2019 to become the dean, and when the news of the shooting broke Tudor-Locke wrote: “Like many, I felt helpless and ineffectual as I transmitted my own heartfelt condolences and assurances of unity and perseverance to you, my dear colleagues. I could hardly wait until I would be able to join you that fall. Watching the campus and community response from afar, I knew without any doubt that I was meant to be a part of the Niner Nation.”
Hitchcock, who is an active volunteer on campus and served on the Niner 9 Homecoming Court, still has flashbulb memories from April 30, 2019. There are certain smells — her friend’s perfume she was wearing — that immediately take her back to Oak Hall that day.
“I really hate that UNC Charlotte is associated with the shooting, but I guess it’s our legacy, in a way. This year’s remembrance will give me some closure. During 2021-22, it has been nice seeing the campus come back to life again.”
This story was originally published April 26, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
