Collegiate Times

Ray Pereira and Andrew Benton reflect at the vigil held for Deriek Crouse, the officer who was killed yesterday.

Despite being officially scheduled for Friday at 6:30 p.m., more than 150 people showed up to a candlelight vigil at the April 16 memorial last night.

“Even though it was cancelled, I think it was fantastic that people still came out,” said Andrew Benton, a freshman engineering major and Corps of Cadets member. “I’m really proud to be a part of the Hokie Nation tonight.”

The vigil, held at 8 p.m., was unofficially organized by Kevin Burke, a senior communication major, and Chris Mundy, a 2009 alumnus. The two created the event on Facebook at around 5 p.m., Burke said.

He said the event grew faster than he expected, reaching about 2,000 people within less than two hours.

“After we did that, the SGA contacted us and said they’d like to be a part of it tomorrow,” Burke said.

He said the SGA felt the event should be held with the support of Hokies United and administration, and it would be safer to have the event tomorrow.

“We moved it because of things like security,” said J Corbin Dimeglio, a senior finance major and SGA president.

Burke changed the date of the event on the Facebook group, which had 3,500 attendees, by 9:30 last night.

However, people still participated in a vigil last night anyways.

“I think (today’s violence) is a bad rep for Virginia Tech,” said Pete Womack, a freshman biology major. “But the fact that we are all here tonight shows that as a community we’re strong, and we don’t let things like this ruin it.”

Although the identity of the fallen officer —Deriek Crouse — was still unknown at the time of the vigil, students were adamant to show their support.

“We still came — paying respect and honor to the fallen officer is a really big thing for us,” said Ray Pereira, a junior electrical engineering major and member of the Corps.

“We knew we had to do something,” Burke said. “It’s definitely a sad event losing one of our officers who has done so much to keep our community safe. They couldn’t have done a better job.”

Pereira said the day made him feel proud to be a Hokie.

“We’re growing stronger as a community through things like this,” Pereira said. “My pride as a Hokie hasn’t been tarnished at all, I’d say I’m more proud to see my fellow Hokies come out tonight.”

Burke said the support shown last night showed the world what Tech is all about, not the violence of earlier in the day.

“We all know this isn’t what Virginia Tech is about,” he said.

A version of this article appeared in the Dec 9 issue of the Collegiate Times.