UNC-Charlotte student will be buried with full military honors

The UNC-Charlotte student who tackled a shooter on campus last week will be buried with full military honors.

The announcement was made Friday afternoon at a rally in uptown where students and activists gathered to raise awareness about gun violence.

An online petition to have 21-year-old Riley Howell given a burial with full military honors was started Wednesday, NBC Charlotte reported. As of Sunday afternoon, there were more than 66,000 signatures. The petition needed 100,000 signatures by May 31 to get a response from the White House.

"Riley was an ROTC cadet and would have served his country," the petition read. "Instead, he died saving the lives of his classmates."

A memorial service will be held for Howell on Sunday at 5 p.m. in Stuart Auditorium at Lake Junaluska.

Howell and Ellis Parlier were killed in Tuesday's shooting; four others were hurt.

The suspect was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and four counts of attempted murder.

Deadliest mass shootings in the United States

There is no set definition for the term "mass shooting" but in 2015 the Congressional Research Service produced a report that limited "mass shooting" to those that in which four or more people were killed. That is the measure used for this chart.

While most of the shootings listed here occurred since 2000, Columbine is included because of its notoriety; the 1986 shooting at the post office in Edmond, Okla., is included because it is the origin of the grim term "going postal."

Source: Media reports, compiled by WRAL