Town hall focuses on man’s death
Residents had the chance to speak with sheriff and Lancaster, Palmdale commanders
PALMDALE — A long-scheduled virtual town hall with the commanders of the Lancaster and Palmdale Sheriff’s stations and Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva on Monday afternoon, focused nearly entirely on the death of a 24-year-old Black man found hanging in a tree near City Hall last week.
Convened as an opportunity for the community to engage with local law enforcement, Monday’s town hall questions primarily focused on the investigation into the death of Robert Fuller, which was termed a suicide in the initial reports, although no cause of death has been determined and the investigation is in its early stages.
Hundreds of people took part in largely peaceful protests over the weekend calling for a full, independent investigation into the death, a theme that continued during the town hall.
On Tuesday, lawyers for Fuller’s family said they are seeking an independent investigation and independent autopsy, to be paid for by the city of Palmdale.
To the repeated question of why officials initially thought the death might be a suicide, Capt. Kent Wegener of the homicide division said there was no obvious sign of foul play when investigators first arrived on the scene, leading to an apparent cause of suicide.
In response to another caller’s description of the tree, Wegener called it “very easily climbable” and said the rope was found secured in the tree above, not on the ground.
“Where the rope was secured in the tree, somebody had to be up in the tree to secure that rope,” he said. “We believe it was accessed from the branch above.”
Wegener also said investigators had initial contact with Fuller’s family, but the family cut off contact.
One woman caller, who said she lived in Palmdale for 20 years, asked for urgency in the investigation and that the team investigating is diverse to take into account implicit bias.
“Especially, knowing Palmdale, being from there myself, going to high school where Confederate flags were flown, there’s a lot of politics and different issues here at play,” she said.
As to the question of a public suicide, Palmdale Station Commander Capt. Ron Shaffer noted the area’s challenges with mental health services and the department’s efforts to partner with local agencies to facilitate help for those in need.
One caller said he participated in the protests at the Palmdale Sheriff’s Station over the weekend, which were peaceful when he left, but then he saw on social media later, deputies reacting in riot gear with weapons drawn.
Shaffer said at one point water bottles were thrown from the crowd at the deputies, which drew a response. He said they realized there were a number of groups involved in the protest and largely self-policed to keep them peaceful.
“We knew a message was being delivered, we wanted to hear that message, we wanted to share that message and embrace it,” he said, while also working to ensure everyone was safe.
In response to questions of how the department can reassure residents, “we’re engaging with the community daily,” Shaffer said. “We’re working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, pa
trolling all of our areas.”
There are about 300 to 400 calls daily and 130 to 170 community events to meet with residents.
The majority of the deputies at the Lancaster and Palmdale stations live within the Antelope Valley and are already ingrained in the community.
“It’s one of the few places where you actually police where you live,” Lancaster Station Commander Capt. Todd Weber said.
The discussion also touched on diversity within the department, in order to better reflect the community it serves.
The department, as a whole, is working to increase diversity and is targeting recruiting toward those areas of discrepancy.
For example, in the Antelope Valley, recruitment is needed to increase the number of Black deputies, the station commanders said.