Tuesday, authorities in Harris County, Texas found an African American teenager hanging in the parking lot of an elementary school.
What We Know:
- According to authorities in Harris County, Texas, the body of an African American teenager was found hanging in the parking lot of an elementary school on Tuesday.
- The Harrison County Sheriff’s Office posted the news on Facebook saying their deputies responded to a call for service at Ehrhardt Elementary located at 6603 Rosebrook Lane in the Klein Independent School District.
- The Klein Independent School Police were called to report to the school because a witness reported seeing a 17-year-old male hanging from a tree in the playground area.
- EMT was called and while waiting for them, Klein officers performed CPR on him. Unfortunately, the CPR didn’t work and the teenager was pronounced dead by medical personnel.
- HCSO Homicide investigators and Crime Scene was asked to take over the investigation and according to HCSO, the tragedy was captured on the school’s surveillance cameras and they were able to review them and confirm they found “no signs of foul play.”
- HCSO also addressed in their Facebook post that this is not the first suicide attempt for the teenager. He had a history of suicide attempt, one attempt occurring a few weeks ago.
- Unfortunately, this is not the first hanging of a young black man in recent weeks. On Monday, a Hispanic man was found hanging in a tree in the Shady Acres neighborhood of Houston, Texas, in an “apparent suicide.” On June 10, Robert Fuller, 24, was found hanging from a tree near Palmdale city hall and 50 miles from Fuller, Malcolm Harsch was found hanged on May 31 outside a library in Victorville, California. The hangings of Fuller and Harsch were initially ruled as suicides but are now receiving further investigations.
- These hangings occurred after the tragic death of George Floyd, killed at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer on May 25. One tweet went viral after someone pointed out that Black men hanging themselves on trees in the same week and during a civil rights movement is not coincidental.
The identity of the teenager and the cause of death has not been released yet, but Harris County ensures that they will be released through the Harrison County Institute of Forensic Science.
