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UNCC shooting victim returns to campus for first time

By Allison Latos, wsoctv.com
By Allison Latos, wsoctv.com

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Drew Pescaro returned to UNC Charlotte's campus Thursday for the first time since the deadly shooting on April 30.

Two students were killed in the Kennedy building and four others were shot, including Pescaro.

“I've got a hundred different emotions going on right now,” he said.

Pescaro said it was great to return.

He told anchor Allison Latos being back at UNCC brought back a flood of difficult and painful memories.

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“I remember feeling it, then saying to the group, ‘Holy crap, I just got shot,’ and I fell out of my chair,” Pescaro said.

He said he vividly remembers how officers carried him from the classroom to the hospital.

Two of his classmates, Riley Howell and Reed Parlier did not survive, which is a reality Pescaro struggles with daily.

“That's probably the part that weighs on me the most, survivor's guilt,” Pescaro said.

Pescaro will return for his junior year this fall refusing to let the shooter scare him away.

“You feel like rocky almost,” he said. “When I was being carried out, I didn't know where I was going to end up in terms of life or death.”

He's now turning the tragedy into a message of unity for his fellow 49ners and a call to leaders nationwide to work together to stop another student from living the horror that happened at UNCC.

“This isn't a partisan issue,” Pescaro said. “This is a human issue -- a life issue.”

Pescaro said he's determined to make sure UNCC students remember what happened, especially to remember Howell and Parlier.

He said he's become vocal about the need to prevent mass shootings because he believes he was given a second chance at life.

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