A moment of silence was held during the Class of 2017 commencement ceremony at Bowie State University in Maryland on Tuesday to remember the life of Richard Collins III.
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During the commencement speech, Mickey L. Burnim, president of the university, spoke about Collins and offered the moment of silence at the 2:14:25 mark in the video above.
Last week, after leaving a party at the University of Maryland, College Park, Collins, 23, was stabbed to death by Sean Christopher Urbanski, 22, on the campus, located just 10 miles from the HBCU.
Collins was slated to graduate with his classmates on Tuesday, but now his parents are planning his funeral.
“I’m in no place to feel very many emotions beside sadness and just a deep sense of personal loss,” Richard Collins Jr., his father, stated.
“A parent’s worst nightmare has just reached my doorstep,” he continued.
The FBI joined the investigation into Collins’ death, to determine whether the killing was a hate crime, after discovering that Urbanski belonged to a white supremacist Facebook group.
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