Remembering ODU student Chris Cummings

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) - It's been one week since Christopher Cummings was shot and killed in his home just off ODU's campus.

The University has been looking at ways to step up security, but fellow students say any changes come too late for their friend.

"Chris Cummings' death has impacted so many of the students here, but there's one particular student who says he met Chris just days before his death, and it's a conversation he'll never forget," said Josh Lund, a student at ODU.

19-year-old Josh Lund works with Hampton Roads Church as part of a student outreach ministry at ODU, and that's how he met Chris.

"We're on campus every day from 10 to 5 o'clock, and we're just out sharing our faith, talking about God's word, and I met Chris doing this one day," said Lund.

Lund says that many students rebuff such philosophical conversations, but he says that Cummings was different. He recalls him as being open and warm.

"Chris was definitely nice about it, and it would've been encouraging to have him come out," said Lund. "And just to see him on the news later, it definitely was a shock. It was a shock."

Lund says his work as part of the student ministry was already important to him, but the fateful interaction he had with Chris Cummings has deepened his commitment.

"Just being able to talk to somebody and then seeing he had died made it so much more obvious that life is pretty short and that we need to make the most of every time," Lund added.

Lund says he'll be moving to the same neighborhood that Cummings lived in when school starts in the fall.