University Of Maryland Honors Slain Bowie State Student With On-Campus Plaza

Collins was killed in May 2017 while standing at a UMD bus stop. The Bowie State senior, who was also a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army, had been visiting the College Park institution to see some friends.

While waiting, a white student named Sean Urbanski approached Collins, ordered him to move, and stabbed him.

Collins was later pronounced dead, and Urbanski was charged with first-degree murder and a hate crime. However, this hate crime charge was later thrown out by a judge. Urbanski was ultimately sentenced to life in prison, though he’s eligible for parole after 15 years.

Urbanski recently appealed his murder conviction, as Blavity previously reported.

Five years after the incident, Collins is being honored with a plaza.

The project features two walls, one of which features a “unity mural” created by students at UMD and Bowie State. An engraved plaque honoring Collins and other prominent Marylanders adorns the other wall.

Today marked a special day as we celebrated the opening of Lt. Richard Collins III Plaza @UofMaryland, honoring the life of our @BowieState Bulldog. This moment unites our BSU and UMD communities as we continue the fight against racism and social injustice. pic.twitter.com/Ih1GgeODim

— Dr. Aminta H. Breaux (@PresBreaux) May 16, 2022

At the plaza’s dedication ceremony, Collins’s mother — Dawn Collins — addressed how UMD and Bowie State teamed up to form a Social Justice Alliance between the campuses, which is committed “to break[ing] down racial barriers between the two campuses.”

“We want to groom young minds on both campuses to work to gather to be active agents of social justice,” she noted.

Dawn and her husband, Richard Collins II, have also launched a foundation named after their son and worked to ramp up Maryland’s hate crime laws.