Wrongful death suit dismissed against USA

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - The University of South Alabama will no longer be named in a wrongful death lawsuit involving the death of student Gil Collar.

"We're not really in a position to tell you what our next step is going to be. We're just going to keep moving forward," said Ben Locklar, the attorney for the Collar family.

The attorney for the school, David Strassburg, filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit against the school and the chief of police. The incident happened in October 2012.

According to surveillance video, Collar was unarmed and undressed when he pounded on the window of the campus police station. The video shows an officer shot Collar after he allegedly charged at the officer despite being ordered to stop.

"When they went to orientation, they were told, ‘We're going to take care of your son.’ It's an unfortunate situation, but what's important to them is that this doesn't happen again," Locklar said.

Strassburg said in court that the school couldn't be sued because the state has what is called sovereign immunity. Strassburg said the same applied to the chief since he is an employee of the school.

The judge did agreed to drop the suit against the school but said he couldn't make a ruling yet on the suit against the police chief.

Strassburg did not want to comment besides what was discussed in open court.

The attorneys for Collar's family are still waiting for the toxicology report. We spoke with Mobile County District Attorney Ashley Rich who would not comment on the case, nor would she say if her office had the report.