Cincinnati's Xavier University held a graduation ceremony despite the loss of an MBA graduate student who was shot and killed, and the students wore commemoration pins.
CINCINNATI - Xavier University held its graduation ceremony today, honoring one student who was not able to walk across the stage. Graduate student Oluwabukola Pereira was shot and killed earlier this month in Lockland.
Pereira was shot and killed while working at an auto center in Lockland just a week before graduating with her MBA.
“As we honor all of our graduate degree recipients, one graduate will be deeply missed,” a speaker said at the ceremony. “This past week our MBA program lost a member of its graduating class, Bukola Pereira. ” James Lafferty shares a photo from November 2025. On the left is Bukky Pereira next to her fiance.
Lafferty is standing in the middle next to his nephew . A day meant for celebration at Xavier University’s graduate commencement ceremony also became a day of remembrance. Students and faculty wore pins reading, “Crossing the finish line for Bukola,” a tribute to her love of running and to the goal she worked so hard to reach. Pereira’s husband and stepchildren walked across the stage today, receiving her diploma on her behalf.
“It really should have been Bukola getting it herself, so it was bittersweet,” said Gbenga Pereira, her husband. “She worked many, many long hours into the night doing all the coursework so this really should have been her honor. ”“Anybody you talk to who’s met her will tell you how much her faith was important to her and how much caring for other people was really important to her,” he said.
“She took the gift of running she had and she just soared with it, she excelled with it. ” As police continue searching for the person who killed her, her family is trying to hold on to Bukola’s memory while also pushing for answers.
“It’s time to pivot to one finding the person who did this so we ask for help from the community to find the person and then two, and even more importantly honor her legacy with the work of the foundation,” Gbenga Pereira said. Detectives are asking residents and businesses in Lockland and Lincoln Heights to review surveillance video, including Ring camera footage, for possible evidence related to their investigation.
Her husband said they are now working on a foundation in her honor. NTSB seeks video footage to determine cause in Akron home plane crash
Xavier University Graduation Lost Graduate Memory Pereira Fundraising
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