CHARLOTTE, N.C.  — A North Carolina college student slain while confronting a gunman in his classroom was being given a hero’s send-off Thursday as his body was returned to his hometown with a police escort.

Police motorcycles and other vehicles with blue lights flashing quickly left a funeral home and started their 150 mile (240 kilometer) journey west from Riley Howell’s college home in Charlotte to his mountain hometown of Waynesville.

Traffic stopped along busy, four-lane Charlotte streets as the procession went by.