Dozens of people gathered inside and outside Palmdale City Hall to demand a full investigation into the death of a 24-year-old black man found hanging from a tree, and they blasted city and sheriff’s officials for quickly deeming it a suicide without exploring the possibility of a hate crime.
Robert Fuller’s body was found with a rope around his neck, hanging from a tree just before 4 a.m. Wednesday in Poncitlan Square, across from City Hall, according to Lt. Brandon Dean of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Dean said Thursday that all indicators point to suicide, but investigators were waiting for full autopsy results and information from the man’s relatives before making a final determination.
The coroner’s office performed an autopsy on Fuller Friday, and deferred the cause of death.
“When a cause of death is deferred, a deputy medical examiner is requesting additional investigation, including laboratory testing and witness statements, before providing a final determination on the cause and manner of death,” an official at the coroner’s office said.
Many people, including celebrities such as Kim Kardashian West, took to social media to demand a full investigation into the death. Friday afternoon, as many as 100 angry residents attended a march and rally in the area where Fuller’s body was found, some labeling his death a lynching. Dozens later attended a news conference at City Hall, shouting down local officials and blasting them for quickly issuing public statements labeling Fuller’s death a suicide.
Palmdale Mayor Steve Hofbauer worked to calm the crowd, which hurled expletives at him and sheriff’s Capt. Ron Shaffer.
“We’re working hard to try to figure out exactly what happened,” Hofbauer told the shouting crowd.
“I can’t pull it out of a crystal ball what the coroner and the sheriff’s department is going to find here,” Hofbauer said.
He said investigators were “trying to figure out what was going on with Mr. Fuller the last few weeks. Who were those people? Who was he with?”
Shaffer and Hofbauer said there is no video surveillance in the area where the body was found, even though it is across the street from City Hall — an assertion that drew angry and profane shouts from the disbelieving audience.
The death comes on the heels of a national conversation about racism in the U.S., and the circumstances of Fuller’s death evokes the country’s sordid history of lynchings.
Nearly 5,000 lynchings occurred in the U.S. between 1882 and 1968, according to the NAACP. More than 70% of those lynched were black.
Shaffer told the crowd investigators have been in touch with Fuller’s family. He said the department is asking for the public’s help to learn about his whereabouts prior to his death.
“If anyone has information about Mr. Fuller or his recent travels, where he’s been or where he’s been staying, we encourage you to call law enforcement so we can get a complete picture of what happened,” Shaffer said.
Two of Fuller’s cousins told NBC4 they do not believe Fuller would have committed suicide.
A GoFundMe account set up to assist Fuller’s family had raised more than $100,000 as of Friday afternoon.