By AFRO Staff
Activist and former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick is funding a second, independent autopsy for Demartravion “Trey” Reed, the Delta State University student whose body was found hanging from a tree on campus Sept. 15.
The procedure will be funded through Kaepernick’s “Know Your Rights Camp Autopsy Initiative” as soon as Reed’s body is released by the state medical examiner, announced civil rights and personal injury lawyer Benjamin Crump, who represents the victim’s family.
Crump said Reed’s family has raised serious concerns after receiving conflicting accounts and incomplete information about the circumstances of the 21-year-old’s death, and that he would conduct an independent investigation on their behalf.
“Trey’s death evoked the collective memory of a community that has suffered a historic wound over many, many years and many, many deaths,” Crump said in a statement. “Peace will come only by getting to the truth. We thank Colin Kaepernick for supporting this grieving family and the cause of justice and truth.”
The news of the second autopsy came one day after Mississippi’s state medical examiner ruled that Reed’s death was caused by suicide.
The police department in Cleveland, where the campus is located, announced the findings in a news release. It said the autopsy results were consistent with a preliminary examination of the body by the Bolivar County coroner, which found no evidence of foul play.
The Black student’s death immediately ignited strong emotions in a Southern state with a history of racist violence, the AP reported.
Even before the autopsy results were announced, the student’s family and their lawyers had called for an independent autopsy and implored police to show them any security camera recordings and other video gathered as evidence.
Cleveland police released no details of the autopsy’s findings other than to say the cause of death was hanging and the manner of death had been ruled a suicide. It said results of toxicology tests are still pending and could take weeks.
The statement said police are still investigating the student’s death and that evidentiary files in the case are being shared with the FBI and federal prosecutors.
U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, had previously called on the FBI to investigate.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.