A Kentucky teacher who was shot to death on the Catholic University campus Wednesday morning sent a message for help to his mother moments before her death.
Maxwell “Max” Emerson, 25, was visiting DC to attend a professional development workshop for teachers at the Library of Congress, according to his family.
His mother, Chandra Emerson, said she, Max and his twin brother came to town on Saturday to celebrate the Fourth of July before the teacher’s workshop began on Wednesday. They were all staying at Trinity Washington University in the Northeast, she said.
On Wednesday morning, Max Emerson left the university to walk to the nearby Metro station and head to the shop. Some time later, his mother said that she received a strange message from him.
“I got a snap earlier in the morning that said ‘Help’ and then some garbled words that I couldn’t read,” Chandra Emerson recounted in an interview with WAVE, an NBC affiliate station in Louisville, Kentucky.
Maxwell Emerson, 25, was visiting town for a workshop at the Library of Congress when he was shot at DC Catholic University.
At first he thought he sent the message by accident. But then she realized it was saying, “Help. I’m being robbed at gunpoint,” she said.
Chandra Emerson said she went to the Metro station with her other son and told Metro police about the message. Detectives eventually arrived and told them that he had been shot to death on the nearby Catholic University campus.
“I was surprised more than anything else. Deep despair,” he said.
“My other son, his twin brother, was with me and we hugged each other and we cried and we kept saying we had to move on and we had to be like Max would want us to be, and his thing was ‘Champions find a way,’ and that’s what we are doing,” he explained.
Max Emerson was found shot around 8:20 am in front of Father O’Connell Hall, police said.
Authorities also reported that surveillance video showed two men walking onto campus from Michigan Avenue NE toward the plaza in front of Father O’Connell Hall. After a few minutes, one of the men shot the other before running off, police said.
Investigators believed the two men knew each other, but Emerson’s family disputed that claim, saying there was no way he knew the shooter, and they didn’t know anyone in DC.
Emerson was a social studies teacher and assistant wrestling coach at Oldham County High School in La Grange, Kentucky, an Oldham County Schools spokesperson confirmed.
Family members told our sister network News4 that Emerson, from Crestwood, Kentucky, won a grant to attend a three-day teacher workshop at the Library of Congress.
“Max was the most… enterprising person you will ever meet. He was the champion in all things in his mind, soul, heart, spirit. He was a very strong Christian,” his mother said. “He cared about people. He was a leader. He was a great teacher. He cared about students.”
Chandra Emerson said her family loved visiting DC and had stayed at Trinity Washington University many times in the past.
She and her children went to see the 4th of July fireworks display on the National Mall the night before Max died.
“Max said something like that that made him cry because… he was moved by the fireworks and the whole show,” he said.
Police said neither the suspect nor Emerson were affiliated with the Catholic University.
