Just two blocks from the University of Georgia campus, in a courtroom in downtown Athens, Georgia, Jose Ibarra is on trial for the murder of the 22-year-old Laken Rileya former UGA student who transferred to the nursing program on the campus of Augusta University in Athens.
At the end of February, Riley was attacked during her morning jog on a trail near the University of Georgia intramural fields. As the investigation and trial unfolded, members of the Athenian community struggled with a shaken sense of security.
“Just because we’re on campus doesn’t necessarily mean the bad parts of the world can’t get in,” said Allison Mawn, a fourth-year student. “She did everything right. She told friends where she was going, she went on a popular route during the day. She had her tracking location turned on. She even managed to call for help, and still it wasn’t enough.”
The case was thrust into the national spotlight when authorities arrested Ibarra, an undocumented Venezuelan immigrant who entered the country two years ago, and charged him with Riley’s murder. In the midst of the election cycle, her death quickly became a flashpoint in the immigration debate involving former President Donald Trump and his supporters increasing it at rallies and President Biden respond to argue about it in his State of the Union address.
“In an instant, all eyes across the country are on us,” Mawn said. “Now you can’t say the name Laken Riley without thinking about undocumented immigrants and illegal immigration.”
ELIJAH NOUVELAGE/AFP via Getty Images
Students have organized vigils and prayer groups and participated in protests, rallies and runs in Riley’s memory. A GoFundMe set up by her family has raised more than $250,000 in donations that will go to the Laken Hope Foundation, an organization that will “promote safety awareness for women, aid and tuition for nursing students, and health care for children… all causes which Laeken felt strongly about.”
For many students, Athens no longer feels like the safe haven they once thought. To allay fears, University of Georgia President Jere Morehead announced a $7.3 million campus safety initiative. The campus has been fortified by an extensive university police force, hundreds of additional lights and security cameras and multiple emergency call stations and license plate readers.
ELIJAH NOUVELAGE/AFP via Getty Images
In recent months, “there has been an expectation that we would increase those efforts,” said P. Daniel Silk, vice president for public safety at the University of Georgia. “We want to be safer and more secure tomorrow than we were yesterday.”
As the Athens community waits for justice, students are milling around campus, walking under newly installed street lights, passing through additional emergency call systems and encountering a heightened security presence. Classes may continue, but the campus and community have changed.
“Regardless of what the verdict is, unfortunately we still lost a student. We still lost a life and nothing is going to change that,” Mawn said. “It’s not going to be 100 percent the same for any of us here.”
