A day after a naked student at the University of South Alabama was fatally shot in the chest by a campus security guard, his mother and friends are asking why no other means were used to subdue the 18-year-old.

According to a statement released by the university, an officer heard loud banging on the police station window early Saturday and left his post to investigate. The man banging on the window was Gilbert Thomas Collar, an 18-year-old freshman who had graduated high school the previous spring. He was naked.

Collar was a wrestler whose favorite quotation, according to his Facebook profile, was “Be easy.” His profile photo is of himself, sporting a skinny black tie and light facial hair, his arm wrapped around his mother.

According to the university statement, the officer “was confronted by a muscular, nude man who was acting erratically. The man repeatedly rushed and verbally challenged the officer in a fighting stance.”

The officer allegedly asked Collar to stop, but the young student chased him “in a threatening manner and ignored the officer’s repeated commands.”

That’s when the officer drew his police sidearm and shot Collar once, striking him in the chest.

Collar “got up once more and continued to challenge the officer further before collapsing and expiring,” the report said. The officer has been placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation.

Collar’s mother told CNN she doesn’t understand why the officer had to shoot her son. Her son, she said, was 5-foot-7 and weighed 135 pounds.

“He was wearing no clothes and he was obviously not in his right mind,” Bonnie Collar said. “Obviously he was not armed. He was completely naked.”

Sophomore Tyler Kendrick was also dissatisfied.

"Really, it just upsets me that there's no other way to apprehend an unarmed student rather than shooting him. I don't understand that," Kendrick told The Associated Press.

Campus officials said the confrontation was recorded by security cameras. The video and other information has been turned over to the district attorney and the Mobile County Sheriff's Office, which will review the shooting.

A university spokesman declined to say Saturday whether Collar was under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

The University of South Alabama is in Mobile and serves 15,000 students. 

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Courtesy of Mahwah Police Department

New Jersey police are trying to identify a man found wandering naked through a forested area Sunday afternoon.

Updated at 5:56 p.m. ET:-- Police in Mahwah, N.J., have identified the man found wandering naked and covered in mud through a forested area off Route 202 Sunday afternoon, officials said Monday.

According to NJ.com, Mahwah Police Chief James N. Batelli identified the man as 36-year-old Russell J. Cox of Ocean, N.J.

New Jersey police asked the public’s help in trying to identify the man, who police said was covered in mud and couldn’t provide any information about his identity or where he was coming from, NJ.com reported.

The man had no signs of injuries, Batelli told msnbc.com, but had been taken to Bergen Regional Medical Center for an evaluation. Police found a pile of clothes nearby that may belong to the man and some paperwork from New York State, but no identifying documents were found.

Cox was released into the custody of a family member Monday afternoon, NJ.com reported.

"The family member was able to offer some insight into the actions of Mr. Cox which will be addressed by his family," Batelli told NJ.com.

Authorities still do not know how Cox ended up north of Ocean, N.J.

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A naked man chewing on the face of another naked man on a Miami highway ramp growled at a police officer who tried to make him stop, a witness to the grisly attack said.

Larry Vega told WSVN-TV in Miami he was riding his bicycle off the MacArthur Causeway on Saturday when he saw one man biting the face of another.

“He was ripping into his face with his teeth, he was ripping his skin, his neck," Larry Vega told WSVN-TV in Miami. "He had him held down, the guy couldn’t move and he was tearing into his flesh.”

“The guy was like tearing him to pieces with his mouth, so I told him, 'Get off!'"  "You know, it's like the guy just kept eating the other guy away, like ripping his skin."

Vega said he quickly flagged down a police officer and watched in horror.

“It’s one of the most gruesome things I’ve ever seen in my life in person,” he told WSVN-TV.

The officer, who was not identified, ordered the naked man to back away, but when the man continued the assault, the officer shot him, according to the Miami Herald. Other witnesses told the Herald the wounded attacker continued to eat his victim, so the officer continued firing.

Report: Miami police shoot naked man chewing on victim's face

"Police officer came over, told him several times to get off and a police officer climbed over the divider and got in front of him and said, 'Get off!' And told him several times and the guy just stood his head up like that with a piece of flesh in his mouth and growled," Vega said.

The officer fired several more times, eventually killing the attacker, the Herald reported.

A Miami Herald surveillance camera captured the aftermath as the attacker and the victim lay side by side on the ground with their bare legs visible.

The victim, believed to be a homeless man, was in critical condition on Sunday at Jackson Memorial Hospital, the Herald said. 

According to WSVN-TV, the victim lost 75 percent of his face.

Authorities have not released the identity of either man.

Miami police were still trying to determine what prompted the macabre act, but theorized that the attacker had suffered from a drug-induced craze, the Herald reported.

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A Miami police officer fatally shot a naked man chewing the face of another man Saturday afternoon on a downtown causeway off-ramp, officials said.

The Miami Herald reported that the naked man chewed off half the face of his victim, who is struggling for his life.

The violence started at 2 p.m. on the MacArthur Causeway off-ramp, just south of the Herald’s offices, the newspaper said.

Witnesses said that a woman saw two men fighting and flagged down a police officer, who came upon the naked man mauling the other man, the Herald reported.

The officer, who was not identified, ordered the naked man to back away, but when the man continued the assault, the officer shot him, the Herald said. Witnesses told the Herald the wounded attacker continued to eat his victim, so the officer continued firing.

Witnesses said they heard at least a half-dozen shots, the Herald said.

The naked man was later seen lying face down on the pedestrian walkway just below the newspaper’s two-story parking garage, the Herald said.

The naked man’s victim was transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital Ryder Trauma Center and had critical injuries, police told the Herald.

Neither man was identified.

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“Based on the information provided, our Miami police officer is a hero and saved a life,’’ Javier Ortiz, spokesman for Miami police’s Fraternal Order of Police, told the Herald.

A police department news release about the shooting did not include many details provided by witnesses to the newspaper.

Police requested surveillance video that had been obtained by the newspaper, the Herald reported.

The shooting and investigation tied up causeway traffic as crowds were arriving at South Beach for an annual Urban Beach Week hip-hop festival.

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A southeastern Pennsylvania man is behind bars after police say he walked naked into a Philadelphia-area Walmart and stole a pair of socks.

Verdon Lamont Taylor, 32, was arrested Wednesday night after police say he stripped off his clothes in the parking lot of the Exton store and went inside.

Police told local media outlets that surveillance footage shows the 6-foot-4, 300-pound Downingtown man walking around the store wearing nothing but a pair of socks he had stolen there. The video also shows shoppers avoiding Taylor.

 Authorities say they used a stun gun to subdue Taylor after he refused to comply with officers' orders and spat in an officer’s face.

Taylor was arraigned on charges including aggravated assault and indecent exposure, local media said. He's being held on $50,000 bail at Chester County Prison.

Online court records do not list an attorney for Taylor, according to The Associated Press.

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