Michelle Brimhall and boyfriend Lennon Lacy (Photo courtesy of
DailyMail.com)
The south has a very racially charged history, as
many black people were lynched by hateful individuals. Many thought
this behavior was a thing of the past, but a recent case has
reopened wounds from slavery and the civil rights era. Police
asked Lacy to identify the body of her 17-year-old son, Lennon Lacy,
who was placed in a body bag at the crime scene.
Claudia Lacy holds up a photo of her son who was found lynched in
a trailer park
Police stated Lennon had hanged himself with a dog
leash and belt. However, there were discrepancies in the case and it
does not appear to some that Lennon committed suicide via hanging.
His family believe Lennon was lynched, as there were unanswered
questions at the coroner's office and his body had a bump on the
head, cuts and scrapes. Lacy's white girlfriend stated she is of the
belief he was murdered over their interracial relationship. The
NAACP has taken up his cause. The case was sent to the FBI, who have
opened an investigation into his suspicious death.
STORY SOURCE
Lennon Lacy Death Might Be A Lynching Not Suicide, FBI Says
Lennon Lacy Death Might Be A Lynching Not Suicide, FBI Says
Lennon Lacy, 17, was found hanged with a dog leash
and a belt on a swing set in North Carolina in August. His death was
initially ruled a suicide, but an FBI probe into the matter indicate
Lacy’s death may have been a lynching and a hate crime. The FBI
launched an investigation into the Lennon Lacy death due to
“unanswered questions” by the coroner, and insistence by the North
Carolina teenager’s family that the death was a “race-based”
homicide. Lacy was found hanging from the swings in a “largely
white” trailer park in Bladenboro – less than one mile from his
home...
Lennon Lacy was reportedly in a romantic
relationship with a “white woman” who lived across the road. The
teenager’s mother added that multiple cuts, scrapes, and a large
bump on his head could indicate that he was attacked or hit by
someone. The NAACP is organizing a march in Bladenboro on Saturday
to draw more attention to the case...
Was my 17-year-old son lynched, in the year 2014? The police
still won't tell me
Friday 12 December 2014 10.41 EST -
It’s hard to think such a thing could still happen in the
United States. This is justice? Tell us what happened to Lennon.
Tell me what happened to my son. The author, whose son was found
hanging from a swing set in the middle of a white trailer park.
Within hours, the police decided it was suicide.
The knock on the door came at about noon. I’d woken
up feeling unwell that morning and had called the hospital where I
work to say I wasn’t coming in. I was on the phone with my sister
and just when the door knocked she was telling me that she’d heard a
body had been found hanging in a local park. That was strange.
I opened the door and saw the police chief of our
town, Bladenboro in North Carolina, standing there. “I need you to
come with me to identify a body,” Chris Hunt said. That put me into
a tail-spin. What was it he wanted? Who did I have to identify? I
got into my car and followed him to a trailer park about a quarter
of a mile from my house. It’s an exposed, lonely place, with a line
of eight children’s swing sets in the center of several trailer
homes that have mostly white occupants.
As we pulled up, I was directed to an ambulance
parked on the grass. Just as I was coming up to it, I saw a police
officer wrapping up the yellow crime-scene tape that had been put
around one of the swing sets, as though as to say job done. That was
really odd, I remember thinking at the time – I’ve seen lots of
crime scenes over the years and they always leave the tape up, to
preserve the integrity of the site, for days if not weeks.
I stepped up into the ambulance and stood over a
black body bag. My 17-year-old son, Lennon, was inside. I unzipped
the bag down to his waist. I was in shock, despair, but I wanted to
see what had happened to him. I wanted to know why my son was here,
in this desolate place, lying dead in a body bag. As I stepped back
out of the vehicle, I spoke out loud and clear. “Whoever did this,”
I said, “they took him down, because he didn’t do this to
himself.”...
