Now that he's gone, it is hard for former teammates of Charles Trammell to find the right words to express their pain.
"It hurts knowing that this school, myself, the world is losing such a great light as Charles,” former teammate Jonathan Nelson said. “It sucks for a lack of better words."
On Saturday night, Trammell stopped to help other students change a flat tire on the ramp from Highway 287 to westbound Interstate 30, according to Fort Worth police. The suspected drunk driver, Miguel Lopez, hit Trammell causing him to fall from the overpass. Lopez was taken into custody at the scene and is charged with intoxicated manslaughter.
Trammell started at Texas Wesleyan University in 2019 and was a former member of the Rams football team. But to the players, he was much more.
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"He was my brother," close friend and former teammate Cayden Glasgow said.
The young men are now tackling tough emotions over losing someone so close.
"He was one of the first people I met here on campus," Glasgow added.
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Wednesday would have been Trammell’s 21st birthday.
In his memory, students held a service on campus, where it was standing-room only inside an oversized room, and later released balloons into the sky.
"It doesn't make sense to me," his mother Shenica Trammell said. "But I hold on to my faith."
"I will not live another day without thinking about him," said close friend Zeno Marcheselli. "I love him very much."
"He loved listening to music and he always had big old speakers in his room that would shake the room," Glasgow said.
"He was not scared to scream out music that he liked,” Nelson said. “He was not scared to talk to you about his life and he also was not scared to get into deep conversations with you."
"He was always there helping no matter who it was,” Glasgow said. “If he got the text or call he would be there in a second no doubt."
"Right now when he went into heaven God was throwing a party for him because he died a warrior's death,” Nelson said. “He died doing what he loved to do helping people, expecting nothing in return and just being a good person because that's genuinely who he was. A great person."
NBC 5's Scott Gordon contributed to this report.
