A balloon release was held Saturday night to honor the memory of a 22-year-old Eastern Illinois University student who died that morning, according to the Charleston Police Department.
According EIU and CPD’s press releases, the 22-year-old student, identified as junior computer science major Yahacov Dennis, called CPD to conduct a well-being check.
After a “rapidly evolving event took place where a CPD officer was disarmed,” police said Dennis got a hold of the weapon and fired toward himself.
The report said Charleston Fire Department EMS personnel arrived to render aid, though the time of arrival was not specified. EMS transported him to Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana where he was pronounced dead, according to a press release from the Champaign County Coroner Laurie Brauer.
As the news began to spread, Dennis’ roommate junior business major Tavantre Moore and friend junior electrical engineering major Yaovi Soglohoun took it upon themselves to host a balloon release on campus to honor Dennis.
They scheduled the vigil for 8 p.m. Saturday at the Lawson Hall basketball courts and spread the word via social media.
When the clock struck 8, the service began, and the dark, somber air of the night could be felt by all in attendance.
As students started to fill the basketball court, all that could be heard were the faint whispers and cries of those in attendance being carried through the wind.
It was very silent for the amount of people there—a crowd of over 50 people.
The occasional laugh from those sharing memories of Dennis was all that cut through the silence that hung over the event.
Upon arriving at the balloon release, Moore and several others began constructing a memorial at the bottom of the basketball hoop closest to Lawson Hall.
They placed 24 candles on the ground spelling the name “Cov,” Dennis’ nickname.
After lighting the candles and arranging the other items they brought to honor him like a poster board covered in pictures with messages like “We love you Covio” and “Rest peacefully,” a blue stuffed animal and another poster reading “Gone but never forgotten,” Moore officially started the ceremony.
He thanked the crowd for their presence and participation in the ceremony, sharing memories he shared with Dennis like their dream to create their own trucking company, and emphasizing “tonight is just about my brother, man.”
Moore ended his speech by motioning everyone to move to the middle of the basketball court to release the balloons.
On the count of three, the words “long live Cov” rang from the crowd and floated into the air alongside over 100 blue and black star balloons.
Even after the balloons drifted out of view over the horizon many students continued to stare into the sky that cloaked the night, but the bitter cold didn’t stop the students from joining together.
Many students were hugging their neighbors whether they knew them or not, cracking jokes while reminiscing on fond memories, crying or standing silently.
A poster with “LLC” in bold black letters was placed on the ground so students could leave a message for Dennis.
For a while, the students stood in silence staring at the poster on the ground as people came to write on it.
To create a lasting memory of their fellow Panther, the students in attendance deemed Jan. 25 Yahacov Dennis Day.
It was about an hour into the balloon release before students began to leave. As the number of people slowly began to drop, the few that remained left one final sentiment to Dennis.
Junior early childhood education major London Griffin and junior digital media major Jamaya Fuller hung “Cov” on the fence enclosing the basketball court before saying their final see you soon for the night.
After taking a group picture in front of the memorial, the group of eight people consisting of Moore and seven of Dennis’s closest friends gathered their gifts and left the candles which stayed lit until the next morning.
This event was very symbolic for Moore and Soglohoun.
From the location to the colors of the balloons, everything had a purpose.
Lawson basketball courts was the chosen location because Lawson is where Dennis’s time at EIU began.
“That’s where it began, Lawson fourth floor, August 2022 where Cov came to EIU and made his mark,” said Moore.
The color and shape of the balloons symbolized who Dennis was in Moore’s eyes.

“The blue is because blue is his favorite color and black was because being around me, he had to start wearing all black ’cause I didn’t like his a– wearing them bright a– colors,” said Moore.
The reason behind the stars was not only because Dennis had a star tattoo on the back of his forearm, but because stars had their own meaning to Dennis.
“I’d be lying if I told you I remember what he said it means. But that star was him,” Moore said.
Outside of his own symbolic meanings, Moore said he believed there was a greater power at hand working with him as he put together the balloon release.
“Some of that is I feel like it was just God’s blessing and God’s control and God’s doing just to say, ‘I have your brother, and he’s in a better place,’” said Moore. “When I went to Dollar Tree to go get my balloons for them to only have the stars and the colors I needed, I feel like it was just God saying they give him his stars in heaven.”
Soglohoun felt like there was something there at the balloon release symbolizing Dennis’s memory too.
“When the balloon was released, I promise you I was sitting up there. I was still standing looking at the balloon. Even after it flew away, I was still looking in that direction for some odd reason,” said Soglohoun. “I felt the breeze; I felt the breeze. I don’t know if any of y’all felt that, but for real, I felt the breeze. So, I just kept staring in that direction for a little minute.”
Moore was grateful for the overwhelming support that came from the students.
He said when he first got there and was in the process of finding his roommate, finding the things he bought and setting up, people immediately came to talk to him asking if he needed help with anything.
As students came to Moore to pay their respects and give their condolences, there was one student whose comments truly moved Moore.
“People like that is the reason why I love that place, the vigil, because people came there to show their respect, but they also came to help us get justice for his [Dennis] name,” he said.
Moore wanted to conduct the balloon release so Dennis’s EIU family would have a way to show their love for him.
“The vigil was the point where everybody can come together and just honor him in each and every different way. ‘Cause when the funeral comes, only thing that the emotion is going to be there is letting go,” Moore said.
He said he didn’t want that to be the only memory people have of Dennis.
“I wanted people to be able to express how they felt about him, what he meant to them, how he touched them,” he said.
Dennis’s other roommate junior criminal justice major Aniyah Smith couldn’t believe the turnout.
“It was overwhelming but in a beautiful way because kind of like how Tre [Moore] said, not trying to sound selfish ’cause Cov [Dennis] touched so many people but that’s our Covi [Dennis],” Smith said.
“Cov [Dennis] is love personified,” Smith said. “I’ve never met somebody more genuine, more kind and more thoughtful.”
The EIU Black student union will be holding a vigil for Dennis Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom in the Martin Luther King Jr. Union’s Grand Ballroom.
Alexis Moore-Jones can be reached at 581-2812 or at admoorejones@eiu.edu.