An Alabama state board on Wednesday denied a $1 million claim brought by the parents of a slain Auburn University student from Cobb County. But Lauren Burk's parents said they will continue their fight for better campus security.
Jim Burk, Lauren’s father, said the family’s goal was not money, but to encourage Auburn to reinstate a campus police force. The family claimed the university’s decision to merge its police force with the city’s led to inadequate security on campus. The Alabama Board of Adjustment denied the claim.
Lauren Burk, a 2007 graduate of Walton High School, was an 18-year-old freshman at Auburn when she was abducted from a campus parking lot on March 4, 2008. She was later found dying after being shot in the back along a rural road about four miles north of the Auburn campus, according to police.
Three days later, Courtney Lockhart, a dishonorably discharged soldier, was arrested in Phenix City, Ala. A jury later convicted Lockhart, and a judge sentenced him to death for the crime.
The Burk family has said the crime might have been prevented if the university had a campus police department. The school ended its campus police department in the 2000s in an effort to save money and uses Auburn city police to patrol campus.
— The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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