Protest symbol dies from gunshot

Man became known for photo during Ferguson unrest in 2014

Surrounded by clouds of tear gas that hung low in the air above his head, Edward “Skeeda” Crawford sat on the sidewalk and watched as the Ferguson police traded shouts and threats with dozens of residents who had gathered in protest on the night of Aug. 11, 2014.

For three consecutive nights, enraged crowds had gathered to demand answers about the police shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old whose body had been left in the street for more than four hours. But this was the first night that Crawford had joined the protests.

“This is beyond Mike Brown,” Crawford said that evening. “This is about all of us.”

Two days later, Crawford would become a nationally recognized symbol of the unrest in Ferguson when, dressed in an American flag tank top and clutching a bag of potato chips, he picked up a tear-gas canister and tossed it back toward riot gear-clad officers. The scene was captured by the lens of St. Louis Post-Dispatch photographer Robert Cohen and was part of the package that earned the paper a Pulitzer Prize for their photography of the unrest.

Crawford Jr., 27, died Thursday night after what police say was a self-inflicted gunshot wound, leaving behind four children.

According to police, Crawford was riding in the backseat of a vehicle that evening when he began telling the two other occupants that he was depressed.

“The victim began expressing he was distraught over personal matters to the witnesses,” Leah Freeman, a spokeswoman for the St. Louis Metropolitan Police, said in a statement. “The witnesses heard the victim rummaging in the backseat, then heard a gunshot and observed the victim had sustained a gunshot wound to the head.”

Crawford’s father, Edward Sr., told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he believes his son accidentally shot himself.

News of Crawford’s death quickly rippled across activists circles.

Maria Chappelle-Nadal, a state senator who was a regular at the Ferguson protests, said she was in disbelief when she saw on Facebook on Friday morning that Crawford was dead.

“This young man represented so much for Ferguson,” Chappelle-Nadal said. “On a global level, he is the individual who represented the Ferguson movement and what we were doing with our activism.”

By the time of Brown’s funeral on Aug. 25, 2014, Crawford had become a local hero and celebrity -- dozens stopped him and asked to take pictures with him as he exited the church and a handler helped shepherd him to various members of the media for interviews.

Nearly a year later, St. Louis County officials charged Crawford with interfering with a police officer and assault for his iconic tear gas toss.

In court documents, prosecutors said they were charging Crawford with “throwing a burning gas canister at police officers and making physical contact with (an officer), causing him to be knocked to the ground.”

His death comes eight months after the murder of Darren Seals, a prominent Ferguson activist who was found shot dead in a burning car last September.