Photo: Courtesy Buncombe County Schools
Riley Howell — the 21-year-old college student who was killed while stopping anactive shooteron his campus earlier this year — is now forever canonized in the officialStar Warsuniverse.
In April, a gunman opened fire on the University of North Carolina at Charlotte campus. The shooting was stifled when Howell sacrificed his own life tackling theshooter, “absolutely” preventing what authorities said could have been a more deadly massacre.
“He took the fight to the assailant. Unfortunately he had to give his life to do so, but he saved lives doing so,” Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney told reporters after the incident, according toTime.
The violent actresultedin the death of one other person, as well as several who were injured.
Now, Howell — a noted superfan of all thingsStar Wars— is being immortalized within the fictional franchise he adored. Lucasfilm, the studio that creates the sci-fi world in all its facets, created a new character in its storied mythology: Ri-Lee Howell.
Riley Howell’s brother Teddy and girlfriend Lauren Westmoreland.Kathy Kmonicek/AP/REX/Shutterstock
Featured in a companion book set to coincide with thenew movietitledStar Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary, the new character isdescribedas a Jedi Master and historian of the Jedi Order.
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Lucasfilm
In aletterfrom Lucasfilm, a representative from the company informed the family back in May that they were working on a top-secret way of honoring Howell.
“Riley’s courage and selflessness brings out the Jedi in all of us. We hope you may rejoice in his memory, and we join you in honoring his life and example,” read the letter. “…All of us here extend our deepest condolences. The Force will be with Riley, and all of you, always.”
“It’s a book that’s actually in the movie that he was the custodian of and this Jedi master who kept these records,” Westmoreland said. “That’s so perfect, because he had an encyclopedic knowledge ofStar Wars. He could tell you anything about anything if you asked him.
He added: “The fact that he’s a historian in theStar Warsuniverse is just spot on. Whoever did their research did a really good job on that.”
source: people.com
