Editing Trystan Andrew Terrell (section)

==Background==
Born in Texas and a registered voter in Mecklenburg County, he had no prior criminal record in either North Carolina or in Texas. UNC Charlotte police said they had not noted him as a potential threat prior to the shooting. He was inactive on social media networks, and had legally purchased the handgun he allegedly used.

Terrell moved to North Carolina with his family in 2014, according to his grandfather Paul Rold of Arlington, Texas. He spent his high school years in a middle-class neighborhood in Mansfield, Texas, where he attended Mansfield High School. According to Rold, Terrell and his father Craig, who had taken a job as an auditor for the Charlotte city government, had moved to Charlotte for a fresh start and new surroundings. His mother Robyn Ann, who lived in Mansfield from 1999 until her death from breast cancer in December 2011, had worked as a paraprofessional educator with the Mansfield school district. Terrell's former neighbors said he was devastated by his mother's death, and that the family moved because Terrell wanted a change of scenery. He has an older sister who resides in Baltimore.

Rold described his grandson as autistic and socially reserved. He said Terrell dreamed of working in South America, and taught himself French and Portuguese with the aid of a language learning program Rold had bought for him. According to Rold, his grandson never showed any interest in firearms or other weapons, and that Terrell's actions were those of "someone foreign to me. This is not in his DNA." He further said his grandson was critical of American gun culture, saying it was too easy for people to obtain firearms in the United States, and that his grandson had specifically referenced New Zealand's crackdown on guns following the [[Brenton Tarrant|Christchurch mosque shootings]].<ref>[https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/north-carolina-school-shooter-from-arlington-graduated-from-mansfield-high-school/215976/ North Carolina School Shooter From Arlington, Graduated From Mansfield High School], ''NBC 5''</ref> Rold described his grandson as "not bubbly and effervescent, rather shy, quiet, studious, not athletic," though he had tried to introduce his grandson to baseball and golf, with no success. Rold said he blamed lax gun laws for making firearms too easy to obtain, and that if his grandson "had not been able to secure a weapon, this would never have happened." He did not believe his grandson had a mental illness which would have disposed him to commit violence, "but then I’m not a psychologist. You would never have believed this could have happened, that he would have done something like this."

From the fall of 2015 through the spring of 2018, Terrell was enrolled at Central Piedmont Community College where he studied for an associate's degree in science. Transferring to UNC Charlotte in the fall of 2018, he enrolled in three university courses for the 2019 spring semester, including Johnson's, and attended classes in the room where he allegedly committed the shooting. According to Johnson, between enrolling in and withdrawing from his course, Terrell "engaged with the course material" and "asked questions about the lessons, answered questions that I pose to the class. It was completely typical." Cooper Creech, a former classmate in the same course, said Terrell rarely spoke in the classroom, but would "blurt out statements" and sometimes seemed oddly angry. After Terrell left his course, Johnson said that he subsequently met him on campus and "conveyed that it was a shame that [he] had to leave the course", but that he understood the importance of students needing to prioritize. According to Johnson, that was his last encounter with him prior to the shooting. Nick Brooks, a student who was taking a study break outside the Kennedy Building when he saw Terrell enter, recognized him from commuting on the Lynx Blue Line light rail; Brooks heard the sound of gunshots seconds later. He further said he had encountered Terrell at his NoDa apartment complex outside the school, recalling "He was in the elevator and the doors were closing and he was just staring at me. You could tell something was up with him. It’s like he had no emotions." According to David Spano, the university's director of counseling and psychological services, though his office had a team to monitor "students of concern," Terrell had not been monitored at any point before he withdrew from the university.