Former NFL player Colin Kaepernick has announced that he will pay for an independent autopsy for a black student who was found hanging from a tree at a Mississippi college in an incident officially ruled as a suicide.
Demartravion “Trey” Reed, 21, was found dead and hanging Monday from a tree on the campus of Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi. The incident has brought many conspiracy theorists to claim that this was a racial murder and lynching, but officials have disagreed with that characterization of the young man’s death.
Not only has the county coroner ruled the death a suicide, but local police say they have no evidence to suggest foul play, according to the New York Post. Police even hinted they have video of Reed’s final moments.
“Trey’s death evoked the collective memory of a community that has suffered a historic wound over many, many years and many, many deaths. Peace will come only by getting to the truth,” said civil rights attorney Ben Crump.
Some witnesses had told investigators that Reed had been engaged in a very animated phone call in the hours before his death, and he seemed “real upset.”
Reed’s family, though, is disputing the official rulings and has contacted Kaepernick’s “Know Your Rights Camp Autopsy Initiative” to fund a second opinion on the man’s death.
“We thank Colin Kaepernick for supporting this grieving family and the cause of justice and truth,” Crump added.
Conspiracy theorists claimed that Reed’s body suffered several broken bones before being hanged from the tree on the school campus. But the official coroner’s report refutes those rumors, and says that Reed “did not suffer any lacerations, contusions, compound fractures, broken bones or injuries consistent with an assault.”
Mississippi Department of Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell blasted the conspiracy theorists and said, “I condemn the rumors circulating regarding [Reed’s] death.”
The former football player launched his free autopsy program in 2017 and has funded several such requests so far, without any changes in the official rulings that family members have disputed.
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