North Carolina Student Who Died Saving Classmates From Active Shooter Honored by Disney

Disney-owned Lucasfilm, the company behind Star Wars, honored a UNC Charlotte student who died saving his classmates from a gunman.

Often, we have magical news from the Disney Parks or the world of Disney at large to report. Today, our news is more bittersweet, yet absolutely worth sharing.

On April 30, 2019, the late 21-year-old Riley Howell lost his life while protecting and saving his classmates from an active shooter at the University of North Carolina Charlotte campus.

Per the police statement from that day, Howell helped stop the attacker from taking more lives by “taking the fight to him.” Howell’s actions also helped stop the incident from becoming a “mass shooting.”

“He took the fight to the assailant. Unfortunately, he had to give his life to do so, but he saved lives,” Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney told reporters, applauding Riley’s courage.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Spectacular (@spectacular)

When remembering Howell, many of his friends and family noted how the late student’s favorite franchise was Star Wars, and he was a huge Star Wars fan. His younger brother Teddy even explained, “He’s the only 21-year-old who would willingly fight his lightsaber with me.”

To honor massive Star Wars fan Howell’s sacrifice, Lucasfilm decided to memorialize Howell in their book Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – The Visual Dictionary, which was released as an accompaniment to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in 2019.

In the book, a passage about “Jedi Master and historian Ri-Lee Howell,” explains that he “collected many of the earliest accounts of explorations and codifications of the Force” in the book The Aionomica.

Reportedly, it was a Florida-based individual who reached out to Lucasfilm, asking them to honor Howell in this way.

James Wes Carrens wrote, “I cannot think of a person more deserving to be canonized somewhere in the Star Wars universe. I know that we can’t name a major character after him, but even a very minor character in a single comic book, animated episode, or other medium would be a fitting tribute.”

Lucasfilm clearly agreed and reached out to Riley Howell’s family by letter.

“Riley’s courage and selflessness brings out the Jedi in us all,” wrote Lucas Seastrom of the Lucasfilm Fan Relations Team, “As a small tribute, our Story Group has incorporated a re-imagining of Riley’s name as a character in the Star Wars galaxy. We can’t reveal the specific details at this time, but the character’s name will appear in a forthcoming book publication later this year.”

Stay tuned to Disney Fanatic for the latest Disney news.