UNC Charlotte dedicated a new memorial on Friday to the students who were killed and injured in a campus shooting four years ago.
Two students were killed and four others injured when a former student opened fire inside a classroom on April 30, 2019, as students were giving presentations on the final day of the spring semester.
Riley Howell and Reed Parlier were killed in the attack. Police said Howell was killed tackling the gunman in an effort to save his classmates.
At Friday's ceremony, students and staff gathered alongside family and friends of the victims to commemorate the memorial outside of the Kennedy Building, where the shooting took place.
The April 30 Memorial was designed and built by TEN x TEN, Hypersonic Collaborative and Susan Hatchell Landscape architecture. The design was selected from 36 submissions considered by a Remembrance Commission comprised of students, faculty, community members and an uncle of Parlier.
The 25-foot memorial features a network of tubes touching the ground in six places, representing the six students killed and injured in the shooting. The tubes are connected overhead by a web of strings and 1,440 LED lights, representing a network of trauma, as reported by The Niner Times.
The lights in sculpture will change as people touch and interact with the sculpture, and the lights will display special patterns on Howell and Parlier's birthdays, and on the anniversary of the April 30 shooting.
The memorial was completed with a $2 million budget, the student newspaper reported.
Friday's ceremony began with a wreath-laying beneath the memorial, followed by comments from UNC Charlotte Chancellor Sharon Gaber and Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Kevin Bailey.
"UNC Charlotte made a promise to Riley and Reed and their families and to our survivors to remember what happened," Gaber said. "Today with the dedication of this permanent memorial, we uphold that pledge."
Gaber became chancellor in 2020, following the retirement of former Chancellor Philip Dubois.
In his remarks, Bailey remembered the horror of the 2019 shooting and seeing police, ambulances and a helicopter swarm the campus as students and staff sought shelter in buildings or their cars.
"I couldn't believe what was happening. You plan for this. You practice for this, but nothing in the world can truly prepare you for this," Bailey said.
Bailey said he hoped the memorial would serve as a permanent reminder to future UNC Charlotte staff and students of how the campus responded to the shooting.
"They will understand that when an ordinary day turned into our worst, we refused to be defined by it, but we did allow it to shape us into an extraordinary and resilient community."
The ceremony concluded with the ringing of the UNC Charlotte ceremonial bell.
