FBI probing hanging of two black men

For Shawna Green and many other residents of Palmdale, a city in California’s Mojave Desert, there is no question that Robert Fuller’s death was racially motivated.

“In a word, this is a coverup,” Green, 46, said of the death of the 24-year-old black man who was found hanging from a tree on June 10.

Authorities initially labelled Fuller’s death a suicide, but backtracked after an outcry from his family and civic leaders who demanded a full investigation and have sought an independent probe and postmortem.

The FBI has now said it would look into this case, as well as the May 31 hanging death of another black man, 38-year-old Malcolm Harsch, in Victorville — about 80km east of Palmdale — to determine whether both men took their own lives or if there was foul play involved.

For many, the two deaths evoke a painful period in US history in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when thousands of African Americans were lynched in racist extrajudicial killings.

Infamous white supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan was responsible for many of those deaths.

The two deaths in California also took place as there are renewed calls for racial justice in the US after the May 25 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Several vigils and protests for Fuller and Harsch have been held, and on Tuesday more than 200 people gathered near Palmdale City Hall, where Fuller’s body was found.

Several people interviewed dismissed the idea that Fuller could have taken his own life and said they suspected a “lynching” and possible involvement by sympathisers of the Ku Klux Klan.

“Black people don’t hang themselves. That’s something we don’t do,” Dee Johnson, 64 said.

Johnson said Ku Klux Klan followers had been more vocal in the area since the election of

US President Donald Trump, and that more Confederate flags have been seen flying in the region.

Jamon Hicks, the attorney representing Fuller’s family, has criticised local law enforcement for initially moving to quickly close the case.

“To rush to the conclusion that this was a suicide and not a homicide is extremely disturbing, especially given the manner by which Mr Fuller was found — hanging from a tree,” Hicks said.

“For African Americans in America, hanging from a tree is a lynching.”

Fuller’s sister Diamond Alexander said he was someone who loved life and was “street smart”.

“My brother was not suicidal. My brother was a survivor,” she said at a vigil over the weekend.

A complete postmortem was performed on June 12, but authorities said they were awaiting toxicology results and are looking into Fuller’s medical history. —