Memorial Proposed For North Carolina College Shooting Victims

A committee formed in the wake of a shooting on a North Carolina college campus last April has proposed a $1 million memorial to honor the victims.

The commission at UNC Charlotte recommended creating a “significant, focal memorial and commemorative space” in Belk Plaza, between the front of the Kennedy building, where the shooting occurred, and a recently completed ellipse and fountain, The Charlotte Observer reported.

In a final report released Tuesday by the university, the Niner Nation Remembrance Commission recommended that the memorial recognize victims Reed Parlier and Riley Howell by name and acknowledge those who were wounded, “both physically and psychologically. "

The classroom where the shooting occurred and the adjoining classroom “should be reconfigured and repurposed” to no longer serve as classrooms, the commission said in its report. The commission offered no recommendations on how the classrooms should be used, but suggested that a contemplative space be created in the Kennedy building including a “documentary plaque acknowledging the events of April 30, 2019.”

A final design should be announced with a groundbreaking scheduled for April 30, 2021, the committee recommended, with the memorial unveiled and dedicated on April 30, 2022.

A series of exhibits should be displayed in remembrance of the events of April 30, 2019, and a Day of Remembrance should be held each of at least the next three years, the committee said.

The gunman, Trystan Andrew Terrell, entered a guilty plea last year as part of a deal which will keep him behind bars for life without the possibility of parole to avoid the death penalty.