"The chief said no one was shot after Riley body-slammed him."

Said Natalie Henry-Howell, the mother of Riley Howell. She's quoted in "Riley Howell’s Parents Say He Was Shot 3 Times While Tackling the U.N.C. Charlotte Gunman" (NYT).

A bullet to the torso did not stop Riley Howell. A second bullet to the body did not prevent him from reaching his goal and hurling himself at the gunman who opened fire last week inside a classroom at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The third bullet came as Mr. Howell was inches from the gunman, who fired at point-blank range into his head.

Mr. Howell’s parents said their 21-year-old son, who is being heralded for his bravery, was shot at least three times. He tackled the gunman so forcefully that the suspect complained to first responders after his arrest of internal injuries, the parents said the authorities told them.

Thomas Howell, 48, who works as a trauma nurse, said he saw his son’s body and viewed evidence suggesting that the gun muzzle was pressed against his son’s skin when he was shot for the third time, either as he and the gunman fell or were on the ground.

“This was burned,” Mr. Howell said, pointing to a spot along the jawbone near his right ear. “That bullet went up into his brain and killed him.”

The article goes into some other incidences of people stopping an active shooter and there is also much more about Riley Howell. Excerpt:

Born Dec. 13, 1997, Mr. Howell grew up on a 100-acre “gentleman’s farm,” as his mother called it, on the edge of a small town in the Great Smoky Mountains. The families of his parents live in the area.

The first grandchild on both sides, he was doted on by aunts, uncles and grandparents. As the eldest of his generation, he was the cousin-in-chief, leader of hikes and the designated shark in rowdy swimming games.

“I remember being little, and I named all my boy Barbies after Riley because I thought he looked like them — he looked like Ken,” said Katie Pritchard, 17, a cousin.

As a toddler, he spent time with a deaf uncle and used sign language before he spoke, said his mother, who is 48 and a teacher.

Her son was not a young man who played it safe, she said. He jumped without trepidation from high rocks into the ocean and worked a chainsaw on the farm.

He was also a deep scholar of Star Wars, amassing a legion of Jedi action figures with his brother Ted, 14. He cooked on a cast iron skillet he got for Christmas, fixed up junk cars and was an avid target shooter, but not a hunter....

And he was handy, an uncommon quality among many young men, who do not have the slightest idea how to fix things, said another sister, Iris, 19. “Guys his age looked up to him because he was a jack-of-all-trades,” she said....

His mane of wavy blond hair and muscular physique threw people off, including, initially, Mr. Westmoreland, who said he was wary of this “big, handsome boy” dating his daughter.... “People thought he was going to be a jerk or something, a big old gym guy, but he was just, like, the biggest dork I’d ever met,” Ms. Westmoreland said....

He spent two years at a technical college, which he attended largely to please his parents, Mrs. Henry-Howell said, and scheduled classes around his work at a landscaping company. By the time he enrolled at U.N.C. Charlotte last fall, he had become absorbed by horticulture....