Friend recalls Collar's last moments

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - Vincent Anderson said Saturday morning will always be etched in his memory. That’s the day a University of South Alabama police officer shot and killed his friend Gil Collar.

Anderson said Friday night, he and some friends were sitting around a picnic table hanging out, and Collar was part of that group.

He said Collar kept saying, “Something incredible is going to happen,” and, “If this isn’t real right now.”

After an hour had passed, Anderson said Collar and one of his friends walked away towards another part of campus while the rest of the group stayed behind.  

“A buddy of mine comes down and says, ‘We got to get Gil. He has no pants’. So we run up the hill and sure enough, he is there, and he’s shirtless; he is pants less,” Anderson said.

He said Collar had stripped down and was naked. Anderson describes Collar’s mood as happy and excited.

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At some point, Anderson said Collar and a friend broke away from the group, and that’s the last time Anderson saw Collar alive.

“I was standing at the bottom of the hill, and I heard him. I didn’t know at the time, but (he was) banging on the police windows. Then probably 15 seconds after, I heard a police officer yelling, ‘Get on the ground. ’ I started running up the hill as fast as I can to stop something from happening, and they shot my friend,” Anderson said. “I knew I needed to get there, and I just didn’t make it. ”

Anderson said his knees hit the ground and he started to cry.

“Another one of my buddies, he found Gil’s clothes on the ground and walked past me, and I told him, ‘I think Gils been shot’. He just dropped his jaw and kept walking. And he gets to the police precinct,t and he has to see my friend on the ground,” said Anderson.

Anderson said he didn’t go to the police station because he didn’t think it was safe. Instead, he went to his dormitory and tried to calm down.

“We all convinced ourselves that he’s fine trying to rationalize that he’s okay and then it just clicked. It had been 30 minutes since I had heard an ambulance come onto campus with sirens and lights, and I never heard them leave,” said Anderson.

Anderson said knowing Collar has changed his life forever and Collar’s death was a wakeup call.

He said in a way, Gil’s passing saved his life.

“I just want to look up every day and say, ‘Be easy boss. I love you. I’m so sorry,” said Anderson.