US protests: Robert Fuller’s family demands truth over black man’s hanging death
- Authorities initially classified case as suicide, but relatives and civic leaders have pushed back, demanding independent investigation and autopsy
- Fuller’s death, as well as fatal police shooting of Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta, have become new focal points in protests sparked by death of George Floyd
Three Mylar balloons, tethered near the top of a thin tree, stirred in the breeze outside Palmdale City Hall on Saturday. At the base lay bouquets of flowers wrapped in plastic and more than two dozen votive candles, their flames flickering.
The tree, which stands on the edge of a two-acre courtyard known as Poncitlán Square, is now a memorial, one an angry, frustrated but mainly heartbroken crowd of nearly 2,000 dedicated to the memory of a 24-year-old black man found hanging from its branches early Wednesday morning.
“This is Robert Fuller Memorial Park from this day forward,” Pharaoh Mitchell of the Community Action League shouted into a microphone. “We want justice.”
Fuller’s death, as well as the fatal shooting of another African-American man, Rayshard Brooks, by a white Atlanta police officer on Friday, have become new focal points in anti-racism protests across the US sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody.
The Los Angeles County medical examiner-coroner’s office initially called Fuller’s death a suicide. His family and civic leaders quickly pushed back, insisting that it be investigated as a homicide and demanding an independent probe and autopsy, something the city also has requested.
“The City of Palmdale is joining the family and the community’s call for justice and we do support a full investigation into his death,” the city said in a statement, reversing a release issued Thursday in which City Manager J.J. Murphy labelled the death a suicide. Murphy’s claim was repeated Friday by Captain Ron Shaffer of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department.