Horror as SIXTH person of color found hanged in public since George Floyd death amid fear wave of lynchings sweeping US – The Sun
AUTHORITIES in the US are investigating after a sixth person of color was found from hanging a tree since the death of George Floyd.
The deaths occurred in separate incidents in Houston, Portland, South Carolina, and New York City since May 27.
Each case was ruled a suicide, but a number of politicians and family members have questioned the rulings, with at least one family speculating that a man had been lynched.
The most recent death came on Wednesday, when a 17-year-old African-American boy was found dead outside Ehrhardt Elementary School in Houston, Texas.
The sheriff's office has said the boy had a history of suicide attempts, including one attempt a few weeks earlier.
It added that evidence from security footage and witness testimony indicated the boy had killed himself.
But Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee claimed there "could be [more] to the story after an eerie pattern of recent suicides where black men were found hanging from trees."
Two days earlier, a Hispanic man had also been found hanged in Houston.
The deaths followed four others to have occurred since that of George Floyd, an African-American man whose death following an arrest on May 25 sparked a wave of anti-racism protests around the world.
On May 27, Otis 'Titi' Gulley, 31, a homeless transgender woman, was discovered hanging in a park in Portland, Oregon.
The Multnomah County Medical Examiner's Office again concluded the death had been a suicide, but Gulley's mother accused police of "[not asking] questions".
"You saw a black man in a tree who was in a homeless camp, and you wrote him off as being a transient homeless, and wrote it off as a suicide," she said.
On May 31, 38-year-old Malcolm Harsch was found dead in Victorville, California.
His family initially called for an independent investigation into the death, but have since accepted that he killed himself after being shown video evidence.
On June 9, the body of Dominique Alexander, 27, was found in a park in the Bronx, New York, also hanging from a tree.
A medical exminer initially concluded Alexander had killed himself, but a police spokesperson has since said an investigation continues.
On June 10, 24-year-old Robert Fuller was found hanged in Palmdale, California.
Officials said he had killed himself, but his family have denied he was suicidal, and the case is now under review by federal authorities.
Chief medical examiner-coroner Jonathan Lucas said the decision to review the case had been taken because of "all the circumstances at play".
A family lawyer said in a statement: "For African-Americans in America, hanging from a tree is a lynching.
"Why was this cavalierly dismissed as a suicide and not investigated as a murder?"
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