UPDATE: UNCC has released the names of the victim’s in Tuesday’s shooting:

UNCC MEDIA ADVISORY
It is with great sorrow that we confirm the names of the students whose lives were lost and those who were injured in the tragic event that occurred on our campus on Tuesday, April 30.
Confirmed as deceased are:
• Riley C. Howell, 21 of Waynesville, North Carolina
• Ellis R. Parlier, 19 of Midland, North Carolina
Those who were injured are confirmed as:
• Rami Alramadhan, 20 of Saihat, Saudia Arabia
• Sean Dehart, 20 of Apex, North Carolina
• Emily Houpt, 23 of Charlotte, North Carolina
• Drew Pescaro, 19 of Apex, North Carolina
Continuous updates are available at emergency.uncc.edu/campus-updates.

By Tom Foreman Jr. and Sarah Blake Morgan

Associated Press

CHARLOTTE — A man armed with a pistol opened fire on students in a classroom building at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte during the last day of classes Tuesday, killing two people and wounding four others, police said.

Officers who had gathered ahead of a campus concert raced over and disarmed the suspect in the room where the shooting happened.

The shooting prompted a lockdown and caused panic across campus as students sheltered in place.

Campus Police Chief Jeff Baker said authorities received a call about 4:40 p.m. that a suspect armed with a pistol had shot several students. He said officers assembling nearby for a concert rushed to the scene, where they apprehended the man. Authorities did not immediately release the suspect’s identity.

“Our officers’ actions definitely saved lives,” Baker said at a news conference.

He said two people were killed and three remained in critical condition late Tuesday. He said a fourth person’s injuries were less serious.

Monfia Drayton, an adjunct professor, was walking onto campus when she heard shots ring out. She said she began urging students fleeing the danger to go into a parking deck for cover.

“I heard one final gunshot and I saw all the children running toward me,” Drayton said. “We started to get all the children pulled into the second floor of the parking deck and the rationale was if we’re in the parking deck and there’s a shooter and we don’t know where he is, he won’t have a clear shot.”

She added: “My thought was, I’ve lived my life, I’ve had a really good life, so, these students deserve the same. And so, whatever I could do to help any child to safety, that’s what I was going to do.”

Antonio Rodriguez, 24, who was visiting campus for a friend’s art show, described a chaotic scene.

“Just loud bangs. A couple loud bangs and then we just saw everyone run out of the building, like nervous, like a scared run like they were looking behind,” he said.

Shortly after UNC-Charlotte ordered a campus lockdown, aerial shots from local television news outlets showed police officers running toward a building, while another view showed students running on a campus sidewalk.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department later said the campus had been secured and that officers were going through buildings to let people who had sheltered in place know that it was safe.

The university has more than 26,500 students and 3,000 faculty and staff. The campus is northeast of the city center and is surrounded by residential areas.

Spenser Gray, a junior, said she was in a campus building near where the shooting happened watching another student’s presentation when they were alerted to the shooting.

“During his presentation which was on one of the campus computers, a popup came up … that there was an active shooter,” she said, adding that she immediately felt panic and worried the gunman could come to her classroom. “We had no idea where he was … so we were just expecting them at any moment coming into the classroom.”

Susan Harden, a UNCC professor and Mecklenburg County commissioner, was at home when she heard of the shooting. She went to a staging area, she said, to provide support.

Harden said she has taught in the Kennedy building, where the shootings occurred.

“It breaks my heart. We’re torn up about what’s happened,” Harden said. “Students should be able to learn in peace and in safety and professors ought to be able to do their jobs in safety.”