University of Georgia asked to increase security after campus murder

Student organizations at the University of Georgia are asking authorities to increase and improve their security measures, following the murder last week of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley at the hands of an undocumented Hispanic man.

Through a statement on in designated “safe zones” and reassess campus environmental design to identify areas where people could be prone to dangerous situations.

“We have been pushing these programs for over three years, and many times in front of UGA stakeholders and leadership, and it honestly falls on deaf ears,” SafeD Athens board president Susan Monteverde said Monday. NBC News reported.

He assured that the organization, which emerged as a result of a series of crimes that occurred in the fall of 2021 in Atlanta, is asking students and their parents to help the initiative and “take responsibility for their own safety in the area.” campus”.

It is “irrelevant” where the suspect comes from

Monteverde, despite the fact that some students and even national political leaders have criminalized immigrants due to the fact that the alleged murderer is of Hispanic origin, assured that it is “irrelevant” where the suspect comes from to the fact that the university must Improve your security system.

Lynn Gainous, co-founder of SafeD Athens, said Riley’s murder on the university campus is a wake-up call for all universities to evaluate whether they have enough measures to combat this type of crime.

“It’s really devastating to hear that maybe something could have been done to prevent this,” Gainous said of Riley’s murder, as reported by NBC News.

Riley had gone jogging on the school’s intramural fields Thursday morning. The next morning, university police officers found the student’s remains behind a lake near the fields, unconscious and not breathing. She had visible injuries on her body, and her death was determined by blunt force trauma.

The university will evaluate options

From the University of Georgia they have assured that they have taken security measures in recent times to combat serious crimes, with an investment of $16 million dollars, as they told NBC News.

The money, according to the information, was used to improve its network of security cameras, hire more police officers, create a nighttime ride-sharing program and launch an app that has a blue light function. mobile.

However, they reported that this week they will meet with authorities to evaluate what other things can be done.

Some of these initiatives are emerging from the students themselves. This Monday, more than 25,000 students, of the 40,000 on campus, signed an online petition to place “blue lights” (emergency phone booths that allow the user to quickly connect with the police) on campus.

With information from NBC News.

Keep reading:

• Laken Riley: 7 keys to the murder of a student on the University of Georgia campus
• Venezuelan accused of killing Georgia student entered the US illegally and had been arrested in NY
• Undocumented Hispanic accused of murdering woman on Georgia university campus