University of Georgia students are demanding more on-campus safety features, such as blue light emergency phones, which the school said it would prioritize following the Feb. 22 murder of Augusta University nursing student Laken Riley.
UGA Police Chief Jeffrey Clark described the attack against Riley as a “crime of opportunity” while announcing the Feb. 23 arrest of Jose Ibarra, a 26-year-old illegal immigrant from Venezuela accused of killing Riley, 22, while she was out for a jog along dirt trails on UGA’s campus.
“As a female student at the University of Georgia, I am deeply heartbroken and alarmed by the recent murder that occurred on our campus,” an unnamed UGA student wrote in the description of a Change.org petition, “Install Emergency Blue Lights on University of Georgia’s Campus.”
“This tragic event happened in a park where many women, including myself, used to feel safe. … Lake Herrick is owned by UGA, a place we trusted.”
LAKEN RILEY MURDER SUSPECT LIVED WITHIN 5-MINUTE WALK OF UGA CRIME SCENE
Riley went for a morning run on trails that surround Lake Herrick, located on the southernmost point of UGA’s campus. Various apartment complexes and railroad tracks border the approximate location where Ibarra allegedly attacked and killed the nursing student. Ibarra lived in one of those apartment buildings, located within a five-minute walk of the crime scene, Fox News Digital previously reported.
The suspect’s status as an illegal immigrant angered Georgia residents, who interrupted Athens Mayor Kelly Girtz Wednesday…
Read the full article here
