Eric Wilkins

In the late hours of a Thursday night in Ettrick, Virginia, a gathering of young people at the University Apartments took a tragic turn, ending the life of 22-year-old Eric N. Wilkins Jr. A junior at Virginia State University, Wilkins was attending a party with 30 to 40 other people on November 21, 2013, at the apartment complex on J. Mitchell Jones Drive, a short distance from the campus.

An altercation broke out at the party as some attendees were leaving. During the dispute, which inve ...