Following the 2011 police killing of Eurie Stamps, Christian Wilkins made it his mission to become college football’s most potent pass rusher in remembrance of his grandfather.
CLEMSON, S.C. — In the middle of the night, five days after ringing in the New Year, Eurie Stamps was watching a basketball game on TV in his pajamas when a peaceful evening turned instantly to chaos. A SWAT team crashed through the front door of Stamps’ Framingham, Mass., residence with a battering ram, and set off a flash-bang grenade in the execution of a search warrant.
When police ordered everyone in the house to get on the floor, Stamps submitted, laying face down as instructed with his arms over his head. Officer Paul Duncan came upon Stamps and attempted to secure the hands of the 68-year-old grandfather of 12. Losing his balance, Duncan stumbled, accidentally discharging his M4 carbine rifle.
Stamps was hit by a.223-caliber bullet in multiple body areas, including the head. He was instantaneously murdered, leaving a large family to grieve the loss of a cherished family member.
Stamps was a retired technician from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. He had no criminal record and no violent past. Rather, that awful night in 2011, cops had broken into his Fountain Street home with the intent of investigating drugs involving his stepson and his stepson’s cousin.
Christian Wilkins, 15, was one of the twelve grandkids Stamps left behind. He found out about his grandfather’s passing early that morning. The tragic news of the passing of the guy who had been the main male role model for little Christian was broken by phone, according to his mother.
In addition to carrying Stamps’ legacy forward, Clemson’s standout defensive linemen aspires to allow his grandfather live on through him. The tragedy gave him clarity and conviction about who he wanted to be, rather than so much about who he was.
