MOBILE, Ala. — A judge on Friday dismissed a family’s lawsuit against the University of South Alabama over a campus police officer’s fatal shooting of a naked student.
State law exempts the school from the wrongful death lawsuit filed by the parents of freshman Gil Collar, 18, of Wetumpka, Mobile County Circuit Judge Robert Smith said in his one-sentence order.
The judge said the lawsuit can go forward against the university’s police chief, Zeke Aull, however. The suit also names officer Trevis Austin, who fired the fatal shot.
Austin hasn’t asked a judge to dismiss his part of the lawsuit, and his lawyer did not immediately return a message seeking comment. The officer was suspended from duty.
An attorney for Collar’s parents, Jere Beasley, said Alabama provides sovereign immunity that makes it difficult to sue the state government and its public universities.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 02/09/2013