UGA campus murder victim Laken Riley’s cause of death revealed after nursing student was found slain in field – as Republicans call for illegal Venezuelan immigrant suspect to face DEATH PENALTY
Police investigating the murder of a University of Georgia nursing student have released her cause of death.
Laken Riley, 22, was killed by “blunt force trauma,” police confirmed. Her body was discovered Thursday in a field on the Athens campus after she failed to return home after a run.
Illegal Venezuelan immigrant Jose Antonio Ibarra was arrested Friday for murder and is now being held in the Clarke County Jail.
The 26-year-old crossed the border into El Paso, Texas, in September 2022, but had been released from a detention center due to lack of space, according to NewsNation reporter Ali Bradley.
Now Republicans, including Marjorie Taylor Greene, have called for Ibarra to receive the death penalty.
The UGA murder victim was killed by “blunt force trauma,” police investigating her death said
Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, has been identified and charged in the alleged murder of nursing student Laken Riley, 22, at the University of Georgia in Athens
Police are searching a wooded area at the University of Georgia after Thursday’s shock discovery
“Ibarra is an illegal alien and murdered a young woman the age of my own children. Deportation is not enough. He deserves the death penalty,” Georgia’s representative said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
“You want to enter our country ILLEGALLY and kill one of our girls. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT!’ She added another.
Representative Mike Collins also suggested that Ibarra be killed.
“Jose Antonio Ibarra would be a great first passenger for the new Pinochet Air,” he wrote on
The phrase “Pinochet Air” has been popular among white supremacists and the far right for years and has spawned several memes about “free helicopter rides” for those deemed undesirable.
“The Venezuelan suspect in the murder of Laken Riley is one of millions of illegal aliens the Biden administration has released into this country to be welcomed with open arms by Democratic-run sanctuaries.
“This man had no business in America, let alone the UGA community, to brutally murder this young American while she was on the run.
“To put it more simply, if this border were secure and Athens wasn’t a sanctuary city, Laken Riley would still be alive,” Collins added.
Riley, 22, was found dead Thursday afternoon after her roommate reported her missing and said she had not returned from her jog
Officials confirmed that Ibarra is not a U.S. citizen and did not know or have any relationship with Riley
He has been charged with malice murder, murder, aggravated assault, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, obstructing a 911 call and concealing the death of another.
Despite Collins’ claims, several studies have shown that undocumented individuals are statistically less likely to commit crimes.
A 2020 DOJ report found that compared to undocumented immigrants, U.S.-born citizens are twice as likely to be arrested for violent crimes, 2.5 times more likely to be arrested for drug crimes , and more than four times more likely to be arrested for property crimes.
Georgia still has the death penalty, but has not executed anyone since 2020.
Riley’s family spoke of their devastation after her murder.
‘The loss is unimaginable. A beautiful girl taken in this senseless act of violence. There are no words. Only God knows the pain and can heal our broken hearts,” said cousin Denise Brown Ewing.
Ibarra has been charged with malice murder, murder, aggravated assault, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, obstructing a 911 call, concealing the death of another and failing to appear on a fingerprintable charge .
Police said he did not know the victim and that the crime was a “random solo act.”
UGA Police Chief Jeffrey Clark told reporters at a news conference Thursday that officers searched Ibarra’s apartment in Athens and evidence shows he acted alone.
‘He didn’t know her at all. I think this is a crime of opportunity where he saw an individual and bad things happened,” Clark said.
‘The evidence is robust. It is supported by important community input, physical evidence and expert police work. Importantly, we were assisted by video footage from our campus security camera network.”
News of the killing came on the same day that House Speaker Mike Johnson attacked President Joe Biden for finally taking executive action to crack down on illegal immigration after millions of migrants had entered the U.S. since he came to power.
Republicans, including Marjorie Taylor Greene, have called for Ibarra to receive the death penalty, saying ‘deportation is not enough’
Representative Mike Collins suggested that Ibarra should be killed by flying on ‘Pinochet Air’, in a reference to Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet who became famous for throwing prisoners to their deaths from helicopters
Representatives of the Republican Party have suggested that Biden’s immigration policies are responsible for the killing, which police described as a “random, solo” act.
Since Biden took office in 2021, more than 7.2 million migrants have entered the US through the southern border.
That’s more people than the population of 36 states. Arizona, for example, had a population of 7.1 million, according to the 2020 census.
After taking office, President Biden immediately canceled several Trump-era border initiatives, including the “Remain in Mexico” policy that required migrants seeking asylum to remain in Mexico until their U.S. court date.
Biden also halted construction of the US-Mexico border within days of taking office.
But nowThe 81-year-old president is reportedly considering using the Immigration and Nationality Act, which gives a president wide latitude to block the entry of certain immigrants, to close the border if more than 8,500 try to cross in a single day .