CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) – The man charged with killing two North Carolina university students and wounding four others in their classroom in April has pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder.

Trystan Andrew Terrell also pleaded guilty Thursday to four counts of attempted murder and discharge of a firearm on educational property. State prosecutors accepted Terrell’s plea during a hearing that was previously scheduled to decide whether the gunman could face the death penalty for the killings at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Terrell had faced the charges in connection with the April 30 shooting as classmates gathered in a lecture hall.

Terrell told investigators he gave up on the attack after being tackled by one of the students who died, Riley Howell.

Investigators said in released documents that Terrell spent months planning the shooting at the school he formerly attended.