WATCH: Law enforcement officials are promising a thorough investigation into the death of a Black man found hanging from a tree in Palmdale in Los Angeles County last week. Investigators say the initial probe pointed to suicide, but the family of 24-year-old Robert Fuller rejected that.
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For at least the fourth time in less than a month, a Black person has been found dead by hanging in the United States, which authorities have once again ruled as a suspected suicide.
The teenager’s death comes shortly after three other men were found dead by hangings that were also initially ruled suicides, which has drawn suspicion from activists amid the ongoing wave of anti-racism demonstrations.
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday that the victim was found dead in the parking lot of Ehrhardt Elementary School in Spring, Texas, which lies just north of Houston.
“Based on security video, witnesses and other evidence, preliminary indications are the male hanged himself,” the sheriff’s office said on Twitter.
“There are currently no signs of foul play,” it added. An official cause of death has yet to be determined, pending an autopsy.
In California, Malcolm Harsch, a 38-year-old Black man, was found hanging from a tree on May 31 in Victorville. Just 72 kilometres away in Palmdale, the body of 24-year-old Robert Fuller was discovered on June 10, also hanging from a tree.
A day before Fuller was found, Dominique Alexander, 27, was discovered in the same manner in Fort Tyron Park in Upper Manhattan. New York City’s medical examiner’s office concluded Alexander’s death was a suicide on Monday, local media reported.
The families of Fuller and Harsch have disputed officials’ initial findings that foul play was not suspected, prompting the two separate sheriff’s offices to vow to continue their investigations as potential homicides.
The FBI, U.S. attorney’s office in the Central District of California and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division are also monitoring those investigations, authorities said in a statement Monday.
In Fuller’s case, the Los Angeles County’s chief medical examiner-coroner withdrew his initial ruling of suicide, pending the ongoing investigation.
“The initial report appeared to be consistent with a suicide, but we felt it prudent to roll that back and continue to look deeper,” Dr. Jonathan Lucas said Monday at a news conference.
Protesters demonstrating against police violence and the killing of Black Americans such as George Floyd have also taken up Fuller and Harsch’s cases, voicing concerns the two may have been lynched and that authorities have rushed to judgment.
Fuller’s family has insisted that he wasn’t suicidal. Days before he died, he attended a Black Lives Matter protest, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Harsch’s family said in a statement issued Saturday to local media that they were suspicious about a possible suicide ruling “amidst the current racial tension.”
“A Black man hanging himself from a tree definitely doesn’t sit well with us right now,” the family said. “We want justice not comfortable excuses.”
Alexander’s family has told local media that they are grieving his death and had no comment on the medical examiner’s ruling.
— With files from the Associated Press
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CRoseCrizzle on June 19th, 2020 at 13:31 UTC »
Is this really a bunch of suspicious hanging deaths or an increase in reporting on suicides of black men?
UpstateGuyDoingStuff on June 19th, 2020 at 12:22 UTC »
I keep seeing posts saying 6 black men have been found hanging from trees, but from all the articles I've seen it's 4 black men and a Latino man.
"Malcolm Harsch, 38, was found hanging from a tree near the homeless encampment he was living in in Victorville, California, on May 31. Ten days later and 50 miles away, 24-year-old Robert Fuller was found in a similar manner across the street from City Hall in Palmdale, California. Across the country, 27-year-old Bronx resident Dominique Alexander was found hanging from a tree in a Manhattan park on June 9. And on Tuesday in Houston, Texas, an unidentified Black teenager was found hanged to death outside of an elementary school."
The one currently being investigated in Houston involving a teenager apparently has significant evidence it was a suicide, I'm guessing releasing information may take time since it appears he was a minor. The one involving a homeless man can be looked at from two ways, homeless individuals make easier targets for acts of violence based on opportunity and circumstances, but they also have pretty high rates of mental illness and drug use which are huge factors into suicidal ideations. The other two have more ambiguity without further background knowledge on the individual. They all should be thoroughly investigated but there is a lot of misinformation or half truths out there.
Another article where I got the quoted text: https://upnorthnewswi.com/2020/06/18/4-black-men-were-found-hanged-in-3-weeks-what-is-happening/
Edited: Spelling and Grammar. Rephrased a poorly worded section.
tetoffens on June 19th, 2020 at 11:02 UTC »
This article is two days old, BTW. So if anyone was thinking "another one?" This is one of the ones you probably already knew about.