Angela Denice Dales, 33, was killed on January 16, 2002, during a mass shooting at the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Virginia. The attacker, Peter Odighizuwa, a 43-year-old former student who had been dismissed from the school, entered the campus armed with a .380 ACP semi-automatic handgun. He first shot Dean Anthony Sutin and Professor Thomas Blackwell at point-blank range in their offices, then opened fire elsewhere on campus; Dales was among those fatally wounded and three other students were injured.

Students confronted and subdued Odighizuwa, who was arrested at the scene and charged with multiple counts of capital murder and attempted murder. During the legal proceedings he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, pleaded guilty to avoid a potential death sentence, and received multiple life terms without the possibility of parole. Hundreds attended Dales’s funeral; she was remembered as a promising law student and devoted single mother.