Graduation day bittersweet for slain black scholar’s friends
COLLEGE PARK, Md. — A black Bowie State University student who police say was fatally stabbed by a white stranger was honoured Tuesday at the commencement ceremony where he would have walked across the stage.
The gown of Richard Collins III was draped over a chair in the front row, and his family accepted his business administration degree.
The historically black school’s commencement was held in a sports arena at the nearby College Park campus of the University of Maryland, where Collins was killed early Saturday.
Moments after the stabbing, witnesses directed officers to a white Maryland student sitting nearby with a knife in his pocket, police said.