Every classroom plan says run, hide, fight — in that order. On the last day of classes, in a room where running and hiding had run out, a 21-year-old made the decision in a split second that most of us only ever imagine: he ran toward the gun.
April 30, 2019. The last day of classes at UNC Charlotte. A gunman opened fire in a Kennedy Building classroom. Riley Howell, 21, an Army ROTC cadet, charged and tackled the shooter, taking him to the ground and ending the attack.
Ending it. That is not a metaphor or a eulogy writer’s flourish — it is what the record says his charge did. The attack stopped because Riley Howell physically stopped it, with his body, at the cost of his life.
“Absolutely, Mr. Howell saved lives”
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney put it in the plainest possible words: “Absolutely, Mr. Howell saved lives.”
Police chiefs choose their words carefully in the aftermath of a tragedy. There is no “absolutely” in that sentence by accident. The chief was stating, on the record, the conclusion the evidence supported: classmates lived because Riley Howell ran at a gunman instead of away from one.
Two students did not come home that day. Howell was killed, and so was his classmate Ellis “Reed” Parlier, 19. Four others were wounded. This page names Reed Parlier every time it tells this story, because a hero story that forgets the other name lost is only half a remembrance. Riley’s charge saved lives. It could not save everyone. Both of those truths belong in the same paragraph, and both families carry them every day.
A soldier’s honors for a student’s courage
Riley Howell was buried with military honors. Posthumously, he received the ROTC Medal of Heroism, a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star — decorations that formalize what his classmates already knew: what he did in that classroom was an act of valor of the kind armies medal and nations remember.
And then came one honor nobody could have predicted. Lucasfilm later named a Jedi — Ri-Lee Howell — after him in a Star Wars book. A young man who charged real evil without a weapon in his hands was written, by name’s echo, into the most famous story of courage the culture has. Students who never met him will meet that name on a page and, some of them, go looking for the real one. They’ll find this story. It will be worth the finding.
Why this story sits on a page like ours
Natural Hair Rules tells the stories of people who protect their own. Ruby Bridges marched. Zaevion Dobson shielded. Riley Howell charged. The thread is the same thread every time: when the worst moment arrived, somebody’s child stepped toward the danger so that somebody else’s child could come home. He was 21 years old, on the last day of classes, with his whole life arranged in front of him — and he spent it, in one motion, on his classmates.
We can’t repay that. What a page can do is refuse to let the name fade: Riley Howell. Reed Parlier. Say them both, tell it accurately, and let every parent reading understand exactly what that young man chose — and what it bought.
Join the conversation
Most of us will never know what we’d do in that room. Riley Howell knew in one second. Leave a word for his family and for Reed Parlier’s below — and tell us: who taught the young people in YOUR life that courage means running toward the people who need you? Tell us below.
Source note: The April 30, 2019 UNC Charlotte shooting — last day of classes, gunman opening fire in a Kennedy Building classroom, Riley Howell, 21, an Army ROTC cadet, charging and tackling the shooter and ending the attack; Howell and Ellis “Reed” Parlier, 19, killed and four others wounded — is per NPR/AP reporting (May 2019) and the New York Times. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney’s statement “Absolutely, Mr. Howell saved lives,” Howell’s burial with military honors, his posthumous ROTC Medal of Heroism, Purple Heart and Bronze Star, and Lucasfilm naming the Jedi Ri-Lee Howell after him in a Star Wars book are per NPR/AP reporting and UNC Charlotte remembrance records.
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