The University of Maryland held a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday, unveiling plans to honor and remember an Army officer murdered on its College Park campus five years ago.
The university said will build a plaza near a campus bus stop where First Lt. Richard Collins III died.
“We must never forget what happened here on our campus,” University President Darryll J. Pines told the crowd at the ceremony. “We will continue to honor the life of Lt. Richard Collins as we pursue an anti-racist, inclusive culture.”
The plaza will include two walls, one featuring an engraved plaque honoring Collins, a fountain and another wall displaying a unity mural created by UMD and Bowie State students. Construction on the memorial will wrap up in May.
In 2017, Collins was waiting at the bus stop near Montgomery and Annapolis halls. He was visiting friends on campus.
Shortly after arriving at the stop, Collins was stabbed to death with a three-inch pocket knife by Sean Urbanski, a white Maryland student.
Collins was days away from graduating from Bowie State University. He had also been commissioned into the U.S. Army as a second lieutenant through the ROTC program.
Urbanski was charged with a first-degree murder and a hate crime. He was convicted of first-degree murder, but the judge dropped the hate crime charge.
Collins was posthumously promoted to first lieutenant in the Army.