Police: ECU student killed in self defense

To Start,my heart goes out to the family of Mr. Flinn, this is indeed a tragedy in more ways than one, a life has been taken uselessly and a progressive future destroyed for no real reason. I have read most of the comments made on this story alot have merit when it comes down to responsibility others are just mean and stupid. To cover all aspects of this one needs to be (unfortunatley)cold and objective, in fact race does play a part in this why you ask what started the fight to begin with?. Also Mr flinn did not start the fight simply interviened,poor judgement maybe but not a death offence. Drugs and alchohol big part of the problem most assuredly as was stated in another comment somthing that has been going on since who knows when the dawn of colledge. Justice? theres the question of the day,in the eyes of the court system someone ultimatlt is responsible for any thing that happens in the scope of law. Should charges be filed most definatly,our laws are set up to protect all people undr most circumstances for example, any or all persons involved in this tragedy sould have been charged with assault in one form or another,such as Assault Inflicting Serious Injury NC 14-32.4 affray kinda vauge but there Ethnic Intimidation 14-401.14 and many others that could have been used but were not the question should be why?. The DA made a statement that was rather open ended I guess thats whats known as CYA also if there is the possibility of charges being filed they should be and usually are in cases like this were A judge really needs to make this type of decision when it comes to who is responible not just the chain of command, and do not forget that that we live in a society were its the JUST-US system not always the justice system,there are many things to consider and this case ALL things should be.

I also have been following this case and my heart goes out to Sam's family and friends. Drinking and smoking pot is going on in high schools and colleges, its been that way for decades. That does not mean kids are bad kids or they deserve to die. Those kids could of walked away from from Reece and all Sam did is to try to help his friend. Where does it say he punched anyone, where does it say any of those 3 or 4 kids where hurt. How is helping a friend and getting murdered, and yes it is murder when you take a life, justify letting Collins get away with murder? Did Collins go to the funneral and show any remorse? I think the cops are 100% wrong, he needs to pay for his actions and that punch had to be pretty hard to kill him. I don't know if this has anything to do with race, but in my mind, it does not matter if your black, white, green or anything else, if you take a life its murder and you should be punished. This should be at least a man slaughter charge. I hope the kid that did this lives in hell for ever.... If he is any kind of man he should stand up and take responabilty for his actions and show some remorse!! I pray for Sam and his family, I pray that justice will be served and once the family is able they will press charges. There needs to be justice for taking a life. If someone drives drunk and kills someone they are charged, this is no different, Mr Collins needs to pay. You are a Murder and how you live with yourself is beyond me. Mr. David if this happened to your kid what would you be doing differently? How come none of the storeies match? Who were the witnesses that saw all this happened? Who was not drinking or on drugs? Did you test Jeffery Collins and his friends? I think if you dig deeper and the police did there job better, the outcome would be different. Its not to late to drug test them all and I think it is wrong to make Sam out to be this person that drinks and does drugs. If you drug tested every student in college I would bet more than half smoke pot and drink.....Sam did not start the fight and he did not deserve to die....Jeffery Collins needs to be punished!!

God bless my soul...But in my eyes you should not care if anyone is gay just leave wizzy alone! YOUR THE DAMN REASON WHY LIL WAYNE CANNOT PERFORM IN THE NEWHANOVER SCHOOLS. He has plenty of fans here and if you would have stayed your ass in your own town you would not have been dead...god bless my soulllllll

The Wilmington DA is simply scared to stand up to the black community just like every other politician in this town. If anyone says that this story would not be a national issue if this kid was black they are simply lying. The media has covered up the race in this issue from the begining. This story was simply supposed to be pushed under the mat.

After all of the "accounts" from the media and the "findings" from the DA's office via the police, it is easy to see how Hitler succeeded in taking over an educated industrial country. Don't believe everything you read or see in the media. The facts are not clear since the only witness to rebut 5 liars is dead. So, you have 5 people coordinating their story against one person who was suffering from a concussion, had not slept for over 30 hours, had a knot the size of a baseball on his head and had his friend die in his arms. What type of police takes a statement under these circumstances? No race issues but simply no way to rebut liars. This has very little to do with drugs or alcohol but a great deal to do with folk looking to start a fight. How can five folk be scared of one guy offering concerts tickets? If it is self defense, why was that person held and beaten? Self defense? This is about rage not race. You people aren't safe. If everyone is so hung up on the alcohol and drug deal, then make it a dry county if you are really serious about it. Drugs are a convenient excuse here since the victim simply went to defend his friend who had been jumped by two or three scared people. Justice will be up to God but you people need to question more and type less. You are all being manipulated and simply don't realize it.

I don't know why in the world everyone is arguing about some damn race card when the article doesn't even say what race the two guys were! They could both be Finnish or something! Drunken brawl = 1 guy dead No race issues. We all bleed the same blood. Let it go.

yall show no remorse for a live lost no matter how or what happined it was a tragedy.all you ppl need to show some respect.

OK the kid was under the influence of a potentially lethal combination of drugs. That alone is not smart, not to mention running around Wilmington starting fights. Gee, think the drugs had anything to do with that? Race has nothing to do with it. White, black, asian, whatever...if someone attacks you and you throw a single punch without intent to kill you did nothing wrong. Its called self defense...all you liberal hippies out there can seethe in jealous rage, but it does nothing. Leave it to you to make a whole black/white thing out of this. Looks to me like justice was done.

Please , if everything had been reversed,there would have been people crawling out of woodwork to shout racism.No it shouldn't be about race,but believe me,it would have. This would have been blown to a national level! I also believe if charges had been filed,same thing. I'm a realist. I doubt this is over.

All I know about this ordeal is what I have seen on TV and read here in the comments. I didnt know that one person was black and one was white. But I dont think that has anything to do with it. Of course I wasnt there and don't know all the actions that took place. But I do know that theres 2 sides to every story. People get into fights everyday. If this guy (Sam) got hit in the chin I dont see how this could have been an deadly blow. whether Sam's friends want to admit it Sam was just as much to blame as this other guy. It took both of them to fight. For the 2 friends that were on TV saying actions need to be taken. NICE DRAMA ACT. Because I know that if that would have been my bestfriend I would have been bawling my eyes out. There were no tears coming from either one of you. It looked like you were just doing it to get attention.

Read all these blogs? What a laugh. This 20 year old man obviously had no business even being a second part in an altercation. Xanax, marijuana, alcohol? Stimulants, anti-depressants- thats a deadly combination alone! This kid may have been a great guy, good friend,etc. however and old scientific theory states- "For Every Action there is a Re-action." That is also Fact. There was an action, Mr. Collins reacted and although the results were unfortunate this could lead to revelation of College Age kids awarness of effects of drug use. I know Mr. Collins personally. He is from a middle class family, from a small town in Rural Eastern NC that most of you probably don't even know exists. Mr. Collins is a well rounded, smart young man who has excelled in atheletics and academics his whole life. Note: He has not the first mark on a RAP sheet. Just think about what he has to live with everyday of his life now. WHat if he is put in this situation again and doesn't react? The outcome? Also if most of you blogging know so much of the incident, why didnt you try to prevent this? Why didn't you hang around? Those questions may never be answered either? To all the left wing liberals, your comments are always amazing when dealing with a controversial issue. As I will stand alone and say this was a fluke- 1 in a millions odds- of being struck on the chin and killed Mr. Collins is not a Murderer. NC General Statues prove that with clauses of someone willingly and intently causing death of another. Please folks, always look at the whole box and not half of it. Put yourself in both sets of shoes and think of the actions and reactions. "If the only tool you provide a man is a hammer, every situation he faces is a nail"

Been awfully quiet in this thread today. Looks like the college kids that were arguing got past one of the stages of healing in major tragedies...DENIAL...Acceptance is the next phase.