UCF Plans Vigil to Honor Slain Journalist Steven Sotloff

While the nation mourns the loss of another citizen at the hands of the ISIS terror group, University of Central Florida students plan their own remembrance of Steven Sotloff.

Sotloff, 31, was the second American journalist beheaded by ISIS in recent weeks. His death was depicted in a video released Tuesday.

Sotloff grew up in South Florida and attended UCF. Students there plan to honor him during a vigil starting at 9 p.m. Wednesday at the Orlando Campus Reflection Pond.

“As Knights and Americans, we need to be together to lean on each other as the family we are,” the event’s Facebook listing reads. “Let’s spread the word and remember this American hero.”

The ceremony is being put together by the UCF Gauntlet, Society for Professional Journalists and the Syrian American Council, according to Facebook.

Participants are asked to bring signs and American flags, but it is unclear if the school will allow candles.

News of Sotloff’s beheading spread like wildfire Tuesday as U.S. State Department officials scrambled to verify the authenticity of the latest video. Now confirmed authentic, the video showed Softloff’s death in graphic detail while placing the blame on President Barack Obama.

A man in black addressed Obama in the video. He is believed to be the same person shown in the video that documented journalist James Foley’s death in August.

“I’m back, Obama, and I’m back because of your arrogant foreign policy towards the Islamic State,” the man says on the video. He went on to say that America’s “insistence on continuing your bombings on Mosul Dam” are to blame.

The ISIS representative is believed to be former British rapper Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, 24, according to AOL.

Sotloff was kidnapped last August while working on assignment in Syria. He was a freelancer for Time magazine, the Christian Science Monitor and other publications during the course of his career.

For more information about the vigil, visit the event’s Facebook page.

Photo Credit: YouTube screen shot of Steven Sotloff

See Also: ISIS Reportedly Beheads Florida Journalist Steven Sotloff