Collar graduated earlier this year from Wetumpka High School, where a vigil in his memory drew about 500 people Tuesday night. The crowd included students, wrestling teammates and people of all ages from the community.
Speaker after speaker at the vigil remembered Collar as a young man with a great sense of humor and a great love of life. His parents were sitting right behind the speakers. Many in the crowd alternated between laughter and tears.
Collar wasn’t known as a troublemaker and had only two minor scrapes with the law, according to court records: a speeding ticket and a citation for being a minor in possession of three cigarettes in March. He paid a $25 fine for the tobacco possession.
Two acquaintances at the university have said that before the shooting Collar was out of sorts and appeared intoxicated. He was screaming profanities in the street and running around naked, said South Alabama student Bronte Harber.
Student Sarah Hay said Monday that Collar was the loudest of a group of four or five young men and some of the others were trying to get him to calm down. She said he was talking about being on a ‘‘spiritual quest.’’
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Associated Press writers Phillip Rawls in Montgomery and Jay Reeves in Birmingham contributed to this report.
