UNC Charlotte memorial for campus shooting victims could be finished in 2 years
A $1 million memorial and reflection space have been proposed to remember the victims of the April 30, 2019, campus shooting that killed two students and hurt four others inside a classroom at UNC Charlotte.
After months of study, the Niner Nation Remembrance Commission recommends 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 committee recommends the memorial recognize victims Reed Parlier and Riley Howell by name and acknowledge those who were wounded, “both physically and psychologically,” according to the committee’s final report, released by the university on Tuesday night.
The memorial should include an interactive commemorative space, with landscape, architecture and art combining to provide “a “place of pause in the center of campus.”
Kennedy 236, the classroom in which the shooting occurred, and the adjoining Kennedy 234 classroom “should be reconfigured and repurposed” to no longer serve as classrooms, according to the commission. 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.”
Another $1 million will be required for the surrounding Belk Plaza, according to the report.
The committee recommends that a draft request for proposals be completed and memorial fundraising begin this spring.
A final design should be announced with a groundbreaking scheduled for April 30, 2021, the committee recommends, 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, and a Day of Remembrance should be held in each of at least the next three years, committee members recommended.
”April 30, 2019, was the darkest day in UNC Charlotte history,” commission members say in their concluding remarks in the report. “With reverence, the Commission’s recommendations strive to honor those lost and to offer experiences and spaces that support remembrance, reflection, and healing.
“Riley Howell and Reed Parlier embodied the best of Niner Nation,” according to the commission.
“Their legacy will forever be a part of the University’s history. #Charlotte Strong, the beautiful coming together of community in the wake of the tragedy, will forever enliven the spirit of Niner Nation. Out of the darkness, Niner spirit endures.”
The gunman, Trystan Andrew Terrell, entered a guilty plea last year, making a deal with prosecutors that he will stay behind bars without the possibility of parole to avoid the death penalty.
This story was originally published January 7, 2020 at 7:07 PM.