Belmont To Award Posthumous Degree To Waffle House Victim

NASHVILLE, TN -- DeEbony Groves should have walked across the stage at Belmont's Curb Events Center to accept her degree in social work from the Nashville university at its May 5 graduation. The 21-year-old with the vivacious smile should have shaken the hand of university president Bob Fisher and scanned the crowd to flash that smile at her family.

She should have walked off the stage and out of Belmont and into a life of helping people.

DeEbony Groves won't make that walk. DeEbony Groves was one of four people shot dead in an Antioch Waffle House Sunday morning when Travis Reinking allegedly fired an AR-15 into the crowded restaurant.

The Belmont community has rallied around Groves' family in the days since the harrowing shooting, holding vigils and fundraisers, a sharp twinge of sadness infecting the busyness of the end of the academic year and the excitement that surrounds graduation.

“Like you, I am shocked and devastated by how such senseless violence has taken the life of this young woman, an individual full of immense potential,” said Fisher said in a message to students this week.

The graduation ceremony itself will, no doubt, be emotional, particularly since the university has decided to award DeEbony Groves with a posthumous degree.

Her brother, Di'Angelo, who was eating at an Atlanta Waffle House when he learned of his sister's death, told WSMV that his mother will accept the degree on DeEbony's behalf.

"She was very focused, very determined. I think she was a great example for the people she was surrounded by," he said of his sister.

In addition to Groves, Taurean Sanderlin, 29, Joe Perez, 20, and Akilah Dasilva, 23, were killed when a shooter - identified by police as Reinking - opened fire with an AR-15 at the crowded all-night restaurant, before the rifle was wrestled away by James Shaw Jr. Reinking was arrested in a wooded area a mile from the restaurant Monday afternoon following a 34-hour manhunt. He is being held without bail in the Davidson County Jail on four counts of criminal homicide, four counts of attempted murder and a gun charge.

Photo via Belmont University