A 21-year-old student who was killed while saving his classmates from an active shooter on his school campus earlier this year is being honored as a Jedi Master in the Star Wars universe, People reported.
Riley Howell was killed during a shooting at the University of North Carolina Charlotte campus after he tackled the gunman, sacrificing himself to save the lives of his fellow students.
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On April 30, a gunman opened fire in a classroom in the Kennedy building on UNCC’s campus.
According to the Guardian , Howell and another student, 19-year-old Ellis Parlier, were killed in the attack while four others were injured.
Howell was praised as a “hero” by authorities who reported that he charged the gunman and tackled him inside the classroom, effectively stopping the attack and preventing any more students from being injured or killed.
Now Howell, whose family said he was a huge *Star Wars* fan, has been immortalized for his bravery within the franchise universe.
LucasFilms, the studio behind the sci-fi world, has created a brand new character in the recently-released book, “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker — The Visual Dictionary.”
In the dictionary, Howell appears as “Ri-Lee Howell”, a “Jedi Master and historian of the Jedi Order.”
According to the character’s Star Wars Wiki page, LucasFilms sent a letter to the Howell family following their son’s tragic death to inform them that a character based on Riley was in the works “as a small tribute.”
The company requested that the Howell family keep the news confidential.
Riley’s mother, Natalie Henry-Howell, said that her late son would have loved the idea.
“I like the way they actually left his last name,” she told the Charlotte Observer . “I think he would really be appreciative of that. Because, you know, they could have just said Ri-Lee – Jedi Ri-Lee – and we’d be guessing the whole time about whether or not that was really [him], but they put his last name in there just to really honor him … and that really made me cry when I heard about it.”
Howell’s girlfriend, Lauren Westmoreland, learned about his honor when a former high school teacher reached out to her.
As she told the Observer ,
“He sent me a message and it was a picture of the segment that Riley’s in in the book, and he was like, ‘Hey, is this just some crazy coincidence, or am I imagining this? It literally says Ri-Lee Howell,’ And I was like, ‘Oh! Oh my God! That’s what that is!’ … It’s just the coolest thing in the world.”
Westmoreland said Howell had been telling her how much Star Wars meant to him since the first day they met, and sometimes he even doodled Star Wars pictures on her birthday cards.
“He would be absolutely over the moon,” she said.
Howell’s family brought his ashes to see the new *Star Wars* movie on opening night.
Natalie Henry-Howell said she wept as the family saved an empty seat for their absent son, and told the Observer , “I think he would have liked the way it ended.”
h/t: People , Guardian , Charlotte Observer
