Police investigating the murder of a University of Georgia nursing student have revealed the cause of her death.
Laken Riley, 22, was killed by “blunt force trauma,” police confirmed. His body was discovered in a field on the Athens campus on Thursday after he failed to return home from a run.
Illegal Venezuelan immigrant José Antonio Ibarra was arrested for her murder on Friday and is now being held in the Clarke County Jail.
The 26-year-old crossed into El Paso, Texas, in September 2022, but was 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.
UGA murder victim was killed by ‘blunt trauma,’ police investigating her death said
José Antonio Ibarra, 26, has been identified and charged with the alleged murder of nursing student Laken Riley, 22, at the University of Georgia in Athens.
Police search a wooded area at the University of Georgia after Thursday’s shocking discovery.
‘Ibarra is an illegal alien and he murdered a young woman the age of my own children. Deportation is not enough. He deserves the death penalty,” said the Georgia representative in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
‘You want to break into our country, ILLEGALLY, and murder one of our girls. DEATH PENALTY!’ He added he in another.
Representative Mike Collins also suggested that Ibarra should be killed.
“José Antonio Ibarra would be an excellent 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 several years and has spawned several memes about ‘free helicopter rides’ for those deemed undesirable.
‘The Venezuelan suspect in Laken Riley’s murder is one of millions of illegal aliens the Biden administration has released into this country to be welcomed with open arms by Democrat-run sanctuary jurisdictions.
‘This man had no business being in the United States, much less in the UGA community, to brutally murder this young American woman while she was on the run.
“To put it more simply: If this border were secure and Athens were not a sanctuary city, Laken Riley would be alive,” Collins added.
Riley, 22, was found dead Thursday afternoon after her roommate reported her missing, saying she had not returned from her run.
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, felony murder, aggravated assault, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, hindering a 911 call and concealing the death of another person.
Despite Collins’ claims, several studies have indicated that undocumented people are statistically less likely to commit crimes.
A 2020 Texas Department of Justice report found that compared to undocumented immigrants, U.S.-born citizens are more than twice as likely to be arrested for violent crimes, 2.5 times as likely to be arrested for crimes related to drugs and more than four times more likely to be arrested for drug-related crimes. arrested for property crimes.
Georgia still uses the death penalty, but has not executed anyone since 2020.
Riley’s family spoke of their devastation following his murder.
‘The loss is unimaginable. A beautiful girl kidnapped in this senseless act of violence. There are no words. Only God knows pain and can heal our broken hearts,” said cousin Denise Brown Ewing.
Ibarra has been charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, false imprisonment, kidnapping, hindering a 911 call, concealing the death of another person and failure to appear for a fingerprint charge.
Police said they did not know the victim and that the crime was a “random and solitary act.”
UGA Police Chief Jeffrey Clark told reporters at a news conference Thursday that officers searched Ibarra’s Athens apartment 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 solid. It is supported by key community input, physical evidence and expert police work. It is important to note that we have video images from the security camera network on our campus.’
News of the killing came the same day that House Speaker Mike Johnson criticized President Joe Biden for finally proposing executive action to crack down on illegal immigration after millions of immigrants have entered the United States since he took office. post.
Republicans, including Marjorie Taylor Greene, have called for Ibarra to receive the death penalty, stating that “deportation is not enough.”
Representative Mike Collins suggested that Ibarra should be killed by taking a flight on ‘Pinochet Air’ in reference to Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who became known for dropping prisoners to their deaths from helicopters.
Republican representatives have suggested that Biden’s immigration policy is to blame for the killing, which police characterized as a “random and solitary” act.
Since Biden took office in 2021, more than 7.2 million migrants have entered the United States through the southern border.
That’s more people than the population of 36 states. Arizona, for example, had 7.1 million residents 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 court hearing date in the US. USA
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 the president broad leeway to block the entry of certain immigrants, to close the border if more than 8,500 attempt to cross in a day.