April 15, 2014, College Heights Herald

SPORTS TRACK AND FIELD BREAKS RECORDS AT HILLTOPPER RELAYS

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TUESDAY, APRIL 15, 2014 • WESTERN KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY • WKUHERALD.COM • VOLUME 89 NO. 47

Miami senior Nick Gilyard nestles against the curb as a car passes on Kentucky Street, the site where some men shouted a racial slur and hurled a cup of ice as they sped by in their car several weeks ago. “I watch movies about racism and I’ve read about it,” Gilyard said. “You think you have a handle on it‚ but it makes me feel different having something like that happen to me.” BRIAN POWERS/HERALD

In the DARK Hate crimes go unreported‚ unknown BY MICHAEL MCKAY NEWS@WKUHERALD.COM

Gilyard was walking back from his Spirit Masters meeting to his apartment on Kentucky Street

Nick Gilyard doesn’t walk by himself at night

to grab books to study with a friend at The Registry apartment complex. He was in black slacks,

anymore. What happened to the Miami senior two

carrying his briefcase.

“My heart was fluttering and I was just lying there wondering, like, ‘I hope this is as far as it goes, and I hope I’m not going to die on Kentucky Street.'” -Nick Gilyard, Miami senior

weeks ago may have been classified as a hate

“I was barely 1,000 feet from the Kentucky

crime, according to KRS 532.031. The state stat-

Street Apartments and a black SUV was riding

ute makes the acts of aggression against a person

past me,” he said. “And as it approached, I saw

plastered himself to the sidewalk, and a flood

“intentionally because of race, color, religion,

the guy roll down his window, and then from

of thoughts swirled through in his head during

sexual orientation or national origin” a felony.

the passenger side a guy started to hang out the

time he spent there.

Lawyers say the act seems to fit the description

window,” — he hesitates before he repeats the words — “he yells ‘You stupid fucking nigger!’

of a hate crime. Gilyard is still affected by it. “I walked down Kentucky Street, then through campus, so I had to walk back past where it

going to stop and get out, like is this going to

“I immediately turn and I see him reach back and I didn’t know what to do,” Gilyard said.

happened,” he said. “Just like, being outside in the daylight, honestly everyone that I walked

“A cup of ice hit me and went all over the

past — I just felt like things looked different, it

[ground],” Gilyard said. “I sat there for what felt

just felt different. I feel different.

like forever.”

me last night and it just felt so weird.”

OSBORNE

46 YEAR CAREER COMES TO AN END PAGE A2

GOLDWATER

SCHOLARSHIP RECOGNIZES FOUR NOMINEES PAGE A7

turn physical?’ I was also thinking like, ‘Did I do something?’” he said.

He dropped down to the ground out of instinct.

“I feel like nobody knows what happened to

“‘Are they going to circle around?’ ‘Are they

Gilyard said he’s always felt perfectly safe at WKU, but that night was different. “My heart was fluttering and I was just lying there wondering, like, ‘I hope this is as far as it

At this point, Gilyard was a short sprint away SEE HATE CRIMES PAGE A3

from his on-campus apartment building. He

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