Death on the Highway

Call it suicide or call it homicide, he was just a nice kid.

One of the last things that he did on Earth was call 911 and ask for help.

People in Chapel Hill are talking about the unexpected death of Courtland Smith, a premed biology major and fraternity president at UNC.

I would start with the story but since we still don’t know the rest of the story, I will stick with the facts as I know them from police reports that aren’t sealed and from the rivoting 15-minute 911 call Courtland made the morning of his death.

• Courtland was the DKE president at UNC.
• There was a party at his fraternity house Saturday night.
• His best friend saw him at 2:00 a.m. after the party. He reports that Courtland was “fine” at that time.
• About two hours later, Courtland placed the now famous 911 call.
• A female operator handled his call.
• Approximately 15 minutes later, Courtland was shot to death by a police officer on 1-85 southbound in Randolph County.

The questions outnumber the facts at this time. A video remains with sealed evidence. The medical examiner’s report has not been made public, nor has an e-mail Courtland wrote to his parents “that explains everything anyone would need to know” as Courtland told the 911 operator.

Because so much is unknown, the 911 call seems all the more important to our initial attempt to grieve this loss. The audio for the call can be accessed in the box with the story in the newspaper article.

Would I have listened to this call if I hadn’t watched Phone Booth last week? Maybe not. But Courtland's death would still have weighed on my mind as I worked with my premeds this week, talking with those students who are disappointed and feeling dejected about their low MCAT scores.

So many of my friends have sent their children to college for the first time this month. It’s every parent’s fear that their child will encounter danger or become severely ill while away at school.

The UNC campus has seen it’s share of tragedy recently. A few years ago, the student body president, Eve Carson, was shot to death at close range after being kidnapped and driven to an ATM machine to make her last withdrawal.

When Eve’s death was initially reported, there were holes of information big enough to drive a truck through. With Courtland’s death, the holes are even larger.

But what strikes me is the human interest. Sure, this is a human interest story, but that’s not what I mean. Somewhere in those last 15 minutes of his life, Courtland developed an interest in the female operator. He even asks her where she is from. And whether, as in Phone Booth, there was someone with a gun on Courtland’s “back pocket” or whether Courtland intended to fatally harm himself, he still cared about the operator and took an interest in her.

Call it homicide or call it suicide, he was just a nice kid.

One of the last things he did on Earth was call 911 . Our acoustic memory of Courtland is that of a young man who grew increasingly frustrated during his last cry for help.