The Bowie State University community remembered one of its own on Tuesday, May 23, by cloaking the very first front row seat with the gown Richard Collins III was to walk in, and holding a moment of silence for him during the school's commencement exercises.
Collins was only days away from graduating and had just been commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army when he was stabbed to death while visiting the University of Maryland/ College Park campus early Saturday. Reports detail Collins having waited around for an Uber when he was ambushed and plunged in the chest by a knife-wielding 22-year-old UMD student Sean Christopher Urbanski.
Urbanski has been charged with first-degree assault, and first and second-degree murder in the attack. As it turns out, he may soon have those charges elevated under the classification of a hate crime, as an FBI investigation has ensued following evidence turning up that he's made some questionable remarks about African-Americans online, and is even joined up with a hate group known as the Alt-Reich Nation, on Facebook.
Bowie State's tribute to Collins comes hours after the university held a Monday night candlelight vigil for the 23-year old that was attended by hundreds of mourners.
Source: youtube.com
