Riley Howell Biography – Wiki
Riley Howell was killed earlier this year when he tackled a shooter at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte. Howell, who grew up in Waynesville, was also an Army ROTC cadet and was awarded posthumous military honors for his actions. More than 1,500 people attended his funeral, and his story received national attention.
Lucasfilm honored the real-life hero Riley Howell, who tackled the UNC gunman to protect his fellow students, by making him a Jedi Master in the official Star Wars canon. https://t.co/HBFFrc9ddG pic.twitter.com/e7rJBL1qbR
— IGN (@IGN) December 23, 2019
Riley Howell Quick Facts You Need to Know
Riley Howell Age
He was 21 years old.
Riley Howell Death
Howell died for his efforts, shot by the gunman he hastened. But he was the “first and main hero” to end the shooting on Tuesday night, said Charlotte-Mecklenburg police chief Kerr Putney.
“He took the fight to the assailant,” Putney said Wednesday. “Unfortunately, he had to give his life to do it, but he saved lives by doing it.”
Putney said Howell, 21, one of the two people who died in the shooting, shot down the gunman and that helped his capture.
The shooter entered a classroom on Tuesday night and opened fire just as Howell and 30 other students listened to the final presentations in his liberal studies class.
Howell was shot “blank” while hurrying the gunman, his aunt Morgan Howell Moylan said, transmitting what the police had said to his family. Another student, Reed Parlier of Midland, North Carolina, 19, was also killed, the school said. Four other students were injured in the attack.
Probably the saddest, coolest TikTok I’ve ever seen.
Long live Ri-Lee 🤟🏻 pic.twitter.com/xuT2Q7Y4MA
— Feliz NaviDaddo 🎄 (@officerdaddo) December 23, 2019
Howell did exactly what the police recommended that people do in an active shooter situation, Putney said.
Lucasfilm is Honoring a Real-life Hero
When a gunman walked into his classroom at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte campus, 21-year-old Riley Howell rushed toward him and was shot “point blank” trying to take the man down, Howell’s family said https://t.co/prhpLp6b7q pic.twitter.com/h8xU2wPseJ
— CNN (@CNN) May 1, 2019
The maker of Star Wars has created a character in honor of Riley Howell. Lucasfilm is honoring a real-life hero and “Star Wars” fan who lost others who saved his life by making him a Jedi Master. Riley Howell, 21, was killed earlier this year when he approached a shooter at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte.
A character named Ri-Lee Howell appears in the recently published “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – The Visual Dictionary”. Jedi Knights are the warrior heroes who handle lightsabers from the Star Wars universe.
Howell, 21, was mortally wounded when he rushed an armed man who opened fire in a classroom on April 30. Another student, Reid Parlier, died and four others were injured, but police said Howell’s actions stopped the shooter.
“He took the fight to the assailant, and unfortunately he had to give his life to do it, but he saved lives by doing so,” said Charlotte-Mecklenburg police chief Kerr Putney about Howell after the shooting. “What he did was remove the assailant from his feet and the heroes we have here were able to apprehend from there.”
Matthew Westmoreland, Howell’s friend and brother of Howell’s girlfriend, Lauren, said a letter from Lucasfilm Ltd. arrived at the funeral home that handled Howell’s arrangements in May. Apparently, someone online read about Howell’s interest in Star Wars and contacted the company behind the franchise.
“Riley’s courage and selflessness brings the Jedi out of all of us,” Lucas Seastrom of the Lucasfilm Fan Relations Team wrote in the letter to the Howell family.
Seastrom said that, as a “little tribute,” the Lucasfilm history group “has incorporated a reimagining of Riley’s name as a character in the Star Wars galaxy” in a book scheduled for release by the end of the year. No details were shared about the book at that time.
On Sunday night, a text message to Lauren Westmoreland from an old teacher brought the news. The teacher had bought the visual guide of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”, which premiered in theaters on December 20. In it, he saw the name of Ri-Lee Howell.
The character is described as a historian who retained the sacred texts.
“It’s a book that is in the movie of which he was the custodian and this Jedi master who kept these records,” Matthew Westmoreland told WFAE. “That’s so perfect, because he had an encyclopedic knowledge of Star Wars. He could tell you anything if you ask. The fact that he is a historian in the Star Wars universe is perfect. Whoever did his research really did a good job at that “.
Westmoreland says Howell was so fanatic that Howell’s family brought their ashes to watch the movie on opening night. When everyone realized that Howell was officially a Star Wars character, says Westmoreland, they were elated.