On April 30, 2019, Riley Howell was in a classroom at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte when a man opened fire. He was 21 and didn’t hide: he charged the attacker.
Two people died: Riley and 19-year-old Ellis Reed Parlier, and four other students were injured. Police said Riley’s reaction helped prevent more deaths. Police Chief Kerr Putney said he took the fight to the attacker, that he had to give his life, but that he saved others.
A month later, Lucasfilm wrote to his family to ask permission to use his name. In December 2019, alongside the release of The Rise of Skywalker, a character named Ri-Lee Howell appeared in the official Visual Dictionary: a Jedi Master and historian of the Order. His mother, Natalie, said Riley would have loved being a Jedi.
