Laken Riley’s murder, the AP explains, was a result of the unsafe conditions that female athletes face.
Jose Antonio Ibarra, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, allegedly murdered 22-year-old Laken Riley on a running trail on the University of Georgia campus on Thursday. Riley was a nursing student at Augusta University and regularly jogged near the path in Athens, Ga. She was “an amazing daughter, sister, friend and overall person,” her family said on Saturday.
Initial reports referred to Ibarra as an “Athens resident,” and some reports, such as this one published by the Associated Press yesterday, altogether omit the fact that Ibarra illegally entered the U.S. in 2022 through Texas and was released into the U.S. shortly after. Ibarra is now being charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, and concealing a death.
That same AP article, titled “The killing of a nursing student out for a run highlights the fears of solo female athletes,” explains that Riley’s murder is a symptom of the unsafe conditions that female athletes face — not a direct result of the lax policies that allowed Ibarra to roam the U.S. because of a lack of detention space in border facilities. Months ago, Ibarra was reportedly arrested in New York — a sanctuary city — for allegedly endangering a five-year-old, NewsNation reported. (The AP mentions nowhere in its report that Ibarra is an illegal immigrant.)
The AP likened Riley’s murder to another case:
Riley’s death has once again put the spotlight on the dangers female runners face. Previously, the 2018 death of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts while out jogging prompted an outpouring from other women who shared their tales of being harassed and followed.
Crime statistics indicate that these types of attacks are rare, but they underscore the hypervigilance women must take when going out, even for a run on campus.
Tibbetts was murdered, the AP conveniently leaves out, by Cristhian Bahena Rivera, an illegal immigrant from Mexico. Iowa governor Kim Reynolds at the time lamented the policies that “allowed a predator like this to live in our community.”
Riley likely couldn’t have done anything, a young woman who runs on similar trails told the AP, “to ward off what appears to be a random act of violence.”
“It’s unpreventable, I think, what happened to her,” she added.
Women should “run during daylight hours or with a friend; avoid headphones; carry pepper spray or a whistle; make sure your phone is charged; mix up running routes; inform a friend of your whereabouts and check in with them when you’re done,” the AP suggests.
But the burden in this case was not on Riley to be more careful or to find a running buddy — it was her government’s responsibility to ensure that illegal predators who are known to law enforcement cannot so easily lurk in the shadows, waiting to strike.