Here's how you can help one of the victims of the Five Points shooting

Howard Boone Jr. had not been a fraternity brother for long, but it appears he's already made friends for life.

Members of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity are holding a fundraiser for the family of the NC student shot in Five Points over the weekend.

Boone's friends at Raleigh's St. Augustine's University are raising money on PayPal to help as he recovers from a spinal injury after he was shot in the back of the neck.

"When a situation like this occurs, we're all family, so we want to be able to jump in," said Grady Bussey, a member of Omega Psi Phi taking part in the campaign.

Boone was just initiated in the frat at his small college this past week, before a weekend trip to Columbia that ended in a random shooting. His friend Jalen McDaniel was initiated at the same time.

"I met him when I transferred in to Saint Augustine's," McDaniel said. "I met him in the library and he tutored me."

It was that commitment to his fellow students that made Boone a prospective member of the fraternity, Bussey said.

"The fraternity has always looked at young men with leadership and community involvement," Bussey said. "And he showed that with the ROTC, and tutoring and being a leader on campus."

Boone, 23, had been a member of St. Augustine's ROTC program and a soldier in the Army Reserve since 2013. He just received his airborne certification last year after completing five plane jumps, and wants to seek an Army commission when he graduates next year.

But while visiting Columbia's Five Points early Sunday morning, Boone and two other men were shot when gunfire erupted in an unrelated argument on Harden Street. Boone remains hospitalized in critical condition, along with 20-year-old Kidron Amaziah Deal of Winnsboro.

Boone's parents have traveled to Columbia to be near their son, who was heavily sedated after the shooting, and for the bond hearing for the accused shooter.

"Just like any other hard-working family, they are not prepared to leave their job to be beside a loved one," Bussey said.

In the first 24 hours since launching the fundraiser, Bussey said it had gathered about $2,000.

This story was originally published March 21, 2018 at 12:07 PM with the headline "Here's how you can help one of the victims of the Five Points shooting."