Hero Cop kills naked freshman at University of South Alabama

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Campus officer kills naked freshman at University of South Alabama

(CNN) — Authorities are investigating why a University of South Alabama officer fatally shot an 18-year-old freshman who they say was naked and acting erratically outside the campus police station early Saturday.

With few details of the shooting, the student’s mother and one of his friends said they could not understand how a six-year varsity wrestler and good-natured teenager could have died under such strange and sad circumstances.

According to a statement from the school, the campus police officer heard a loud banging noise on a window at the station at 1:23 a.m. CT (2:23 a.m. ET) Saturday. When he left the station to investigate, the school said, “he was confronted by a muscular, nude man who was acting erratically.”

The man, later identified as Gilbert Thomas Collar, of Wetumpka, Alabama, repeatedly rushed and verbally challenged the officer in a fighting stance, the school said.

The officer, whose name hasn’t been released, drew his weapon and ordered Collar to stop, the school said. The officer retreated several times to try to calm the situation.

“When the individual continued to rush toward the officer in a threatening manner and ignored the officer’s repeated commands to stop, the officer fired one shot with his police sidearm, which struck the chest of the assailant,” the school statement said. “The individual fell to the ground, but he got up once more and continued to challenge the officer further before collapsing and expiring.”

Collar’s mother, Bonnie, said the two people who called her with the news of her son — someone from the school and another involved in the investigation — did not mention that her son was trying to attack anyone when he was shot.

“He was wearing no clothes and he was obviously not in his right mind,” she told CNN. “No one said that he had attacked anybody, and obviously he was not armed. He was completely naked.”

Bonnie Collar said she did not know why her son was acting that way when he was killed. She said he weighed 135 pounds and was 5-foot-7 with a wrestler’s build.

“The first thing on my mind is, freshman kids do stupid things, and campus police should be equipped to handle activity like that without having to use lethal force,” she said.

Campus police immediately contacted the district attorney’s office to request an external investigation, and the Mobile County Sheriff’s Department will assist, the school said.

The officer has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of internal and external investigations, according to the school, which enrolls about 15,000 students.

Investigators are looking at security camera tape of the shooting, Collar’s mother said. CNN’s calls about the tape were referred to school spokesman Keith Ayers, who did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

Earlier Saturday, Ayers called it a “campus tragedy” for the university family but offered no other details, citing the active investigation.

One of Collar’s oldest friends was Chris Estes, 18. He said the boys became friends at age 5 and grew up playing baseball together. Along with their friend Jared, they became three best friends with the slogan “JGC for life,” Estes told CNN by e-mail.

“Gil was a very ‘chill’ guy, mellow and easy going,” Estes wrote. “That’s why I don’t understand the story that he attacked the cop. He got along with anybody at school no matter who you were. He could always have a conversation with anyone. As many times as I’ve hung out with Gil, I’ve never seen aggression in him, especially not towards a cop.”

As the boys grew up in Wetumpka, Estes said, Collar stopped playing baseball to focus more on his dominant sport, wrestling. Collar’s mother said he was a two-time state qualifier in wrestling, and Estes said he could have wrestled at the collegiate level if he chose.

“Gil loved to hang out with friends, he loved having a good time and made the best out of every situation, always keeping his head up,” said Estes, who stayed behind to attend nearby Auburn University at Montgomery.

Estes said it’s unfortunate he didn’t go off to college with his friend. “If I did, I think the whole situation would have been avoided,” he said.

Collar’s mother said their hometown of nearly 8,000 people is in disbelief about the shooting. On Twitter, some used the (Wetumpka Family) on Saturday in remembering Collar.

“Our entire community is in shock because this is so different than his demeanor and his personality that we’ve seen for the 18 years that he’s been on this earth,” she said.

28 COMMENTS

  1. The cop tried to bluff with his gun. That didn’t work, so in order to save face he had to shoot the kid. How did we get here as a country?

    • Yup.

      And the part that’s really enraging is this: The cop will not be prosecuted for murder – or even manslaughter. The worst that will happen is he’ll maybe lose his job and bennies. Then he’ll find a new job as a cop at some other school… or county…

  2. It’s the usual for dealing with people who are somehow impaired. Scream orders and threats at them and when that doesn’t work open fire for ‘officer safety’.

      • That’s part of their training now; confirmed it with my lawyer friend. Sounds good on the tape in front of a drooling, fluoride-addled sheeple-jury.

        Again, Common Law. This guy’s family.

        Tor you have an immense talent for finding these guys’ work addresses.

        What I want for the families of people like this is for Anonymous or Wikileaks to release their home addresses.

        These cops need to feel, shall we say, “community pressure”?

    • I mean c’mon 135lbs and naked! WTF

      Kid is dead for acting like a drunk college student! I remember back in school one time I jumped into a police car (shotgun) while the cop had arrested people in the back seat, just to fuck around. You know what the cop did.. She told me to get the fuck out of the car unless I wanted to go with them. I got out.

      • Dom, I went to engineering school… some students took two liter bottles and sealed dry ice in them. One they tossed into a police car. Chicago Police, not the campus clowns. They didn’t get shot for that. I think they got kicked out of school or out of the dorms or something but they didn’t get shot.

        • True story:

          When I was a sophomore I got caught growing weeeeeeeeeeeed in my dorm. Not a few plants – 96 plants, each about 1 foot tall. Yes, I was an idiot.

          But no guns were drawn on me. No Tazering. No tackling, even. The cops simply drove me to the station where I got booked and released. Charge ended up being reduced to misdemeanor “possession” that “went away” after 1 year of “good behavior.”

          Can you imagine what would have happened today given the same circumstances?

          I have no doubt there would be a full-boogie body-armored SWAT-style “take down” in the middle of the night.

          Glad I did my weeeeeeeeeeeed smoking (and growing) 20 years ago.

          • Eric,

            Today, you may have had a new room at the grey bar hotel for an extended period of time. On the plus side you would have met new “friends”.

            • My life would have been completely changed. I’d have likely been charged with various felonies and probably sent to prison.

              This realization gives me enormous empathy for the countless victims of the “war on (some) drugs.” The system destroys people daily, routinely… over nothing.

              It is despicable beyond words.

          • Eric,

            Ironic that you say: The system destroys people daily, routinelyโ€ฆ over nothing.

            When I have seen the cop chase shows; where some speeds away — usually the result (and punishment) is much much worse than the original (offense) speeding ticket. (although in some cases some of those attempting to run have other legal concerns than just a speeding ticket.)

            It reminds me of Les Miserablรฉs of the
            guy getting ~20 years for stealing a loaf of bread.

            Prison for many can be a life changing experience (often not for the better).

            One conviction can bar access to many possible careers. It can lead to shunning by certain segments of society.

            Sometimes people make foolish decisions (which do not harm other people). If they are fortunate, they do not pay for them for the rest of their lives.

          • Eric, just Wow, and I mean WOW–I didn’t realize how fast it had changed.

            I think we’re about the same age; I did college ’87-’91…so yeah, about 20 years ago. One generation.

            We didn’t like paying $15-20 a pill for Ecstasy, and I was a biochemistry major. So I looked up the structure and said “Hell that’s easy enough to make”

            We never, ever sold it, but we made more than enough for us and all our friends…right there on campus in the organic chem lab. My TA could never understand why I went from C’s to A’s in practical lab scores; I never explained to him how motivation maketh the man!

            But can you imagine the consequences today? As you point out, it would be a completely life-ruining event.

            We never got caught, but I’m certain, like your experience shows, it would have been a “there there, bad boy” routine…not a potentially lethal trip to Dachau-on-the-Mississippi.

            And for what? We never hurt anyone. We never suffered harm; when the stuff’s pure, Ecstasy is less dangerous than Prozac. And some great times were had.

            In fact before it was prohibited by the Stasi in 1987, therapists around the country were using it with fantastic success.

            I’d still take it again today if the risks weren’t so great.

            glad to be an Amerrrrrikun, we’re at least I know I’m FREEEEEE….

          • Eric (and Methyl), my recollections of that time are a bit different. I don’t remember a compassionate and forgiving society of the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s or 90’s.

            ——

            Clean this mess up else we’ll all end up in jail!

            Those test tubes and the scale,
            Just get it all out a here!

            Is there gas in the car?
            Yes, there’s gas in the car.

            I think the people down the hall
            Know who you are.

            Get along!
            Get along Kid Charlemagne,
            Get along Kid Charlemagne!

            — Steely Dan

            • Hi Scott,

              I wouldn’t characterize the ’60s, ’70s or ’80s as “compassionate” or “forgiving.” Just less overtly totalitarian than things are now.

              Just consider a few of the little things – like being able to walk up to the ticket counter 30 minutes before a scheduled departure, buy a ticket in cash without showing ID – and walk through a simple metal detector, without having to take your shoes off or submit to a groping….

              Being able to go for a drive with an open beer in your hand – and not have to worry about an arrest.

              Not being told at gunpoint to “buckle up” for safety.

              Real anonymity, if you so desired.

              The rule of law (more so than now).

          • I don’t think it was the rule of law that made the 70’s a better place to live, rather it was the inability of the enforcers. Back in the 70’s people didn’t spend huge quantities of borrowed money to sniff other people’s butts. Nowadays the goobermint got’s lots ‘o free coin to make sure ya been eatin’ right.

            I can’t see this as a departure from the rule of law; rather I see it as a departure from useful industry. Instead of contributing to the general welfare, we have a government and society dedicated to masturbation and eating its own young. I predict no good will come of it.

          • @Scott–
            “I predict no good will come of it.”

            That has to be the funniest damned tongue-in-cheek understatement I’ve read all year. Hell, all millennium!

            Thanks for that.

            “no good will come of it” dying over here. My workmates are looking at me like I’m a lunatic. Thanks.

  3. It is time for families to take responsibility and respond to these murders in accordance with Common Law.

    Clearly the “justice” system will not; its entire purpose has been subverted to protecting and expanding the State.

    I wouldn’t stand for this. My child? Murdered like this? I don’t care HOW irrationally he was acting; a naked teenager against an armored and armed adult does not require lethal force.

    And fuck their explanation of the “circumstances”, his “posture”, and all the other dribble they’re bound to spew.

    It was, again, a naked teenager against a grown, armored, armed man.

    Who, by the way, could just have gone back inside if his taser wasn’t handy.

    The truth? They like killing.

    • I wonder what Herbert Aull thiks of his murdering shit bag of a campus police chief son? Herbert “Zeke” Aull, Jr. – Campus Police Chief is at police@southalabama.edu, 251-460-6611 fax 251-460-6425. Anon tip line 251-460-6667. Mail: Univ South Alabama, Beta/Gamma Commons Building, 290 Stadium Blvd., Mobile AL 36688.

      How did the Berlin wall fall. Why is So. Korea free. Why is Russia free. Maybe we need our own version of perestroika, glasnost, solidarity, or whatever domestic agitprop, until we shake the donut gobblers out of the weeds and into the open and start pelting them with rotten fruit, shoes, and internet scorn until they back the fuck down
      Did our 4fathers back down when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no! Dean Wormer, Nedermeyer, dead who’s with me…

        • Seems we went from Animal House to Slaughter House Five, Billy Pilgrims tripping through internet time, with plenty to eat and help pass the time, as long as we stay in our bunkers.

          Have to dig out the old Vonnegut paperbacks and see how this novel ends.

          I guess wait and call for backup, now means kill everyone, and then debrief to the spin doctors and spokespolice?

  4. “… repeatedly rushed and verbally challenged the officer in a fighting stance, the school said.”… So THEY say! The dead not being able to defend themselves and all. Funny,that. And whatever happened to all that talk about non-lethal Tasers going around? I’d have thought any PC campus would have scarfed up a handful of them seeing as they’re just a notch less deadly.

  5. 5’7″ and 135, are you fucking kidding me! My wife is about that size. Someone that small on full attack would bounce off whatever they hit.

    Another “Hero Cop.”

    • Campus cops are even lower-rent than the standard-issue cop.

      These stories reveal a common trend: Cops looking for an excuse – any excuse – to let loose lethal violence.

      The kid didn’t have a weapon; he wasn’t a murderer on the loose. Probably just partook of a substance he shouldn’t have. Many ways to deal with this short of a summary execution.

      • Just want to get this right, so please correct me if I’m wrong.

        1. If you completely submit you get beat the fuck down.
        2. If you talk back you get tased.
        3. If you approach you get killed.

        • Based on the evidence, this appears to be std. operating procedure.

          I am sure the campus cop will say the right phrases during the trial (if there is one). He was concerned for his safety.

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