The body of a Black student was found hanging from a tree at Delta State University early Monday, prompting horror on the Cleveland, Mississippi, campus.
According to the university’s chief of police, the body of 21-year-old Demartravion “Trey” Reed was discovered on Monday at approximately 7:05 a.m. local time.
“University Police was notified of what appeared to be the body of a Black male hanging from a tree (at) central campus near the DSU pickleball course,” said Delta State University Chief of Police Michael Peeler, who said the body was later identified as Reed, who is from Grenada, Mississippi.
“Our community is deeply saddened by this loss, and we extend our heartfelt condolences to families and friends and all those who were impacted by Trey’s loss,” said Delta State University President Daniel J. Ennis, reports MPB. “I’ve spoken to Trey’s family and expressed our heartbreak.”
Reed’s death has ignited shockwaves on the campus of Delta State, a public university with a 52% majority white campus and a Black population of 36%.
Despite online comments describing the death as a lynching–harking back to the U.S. South’s well-documented history of lynching Black Americans–police chief Peeler said the circumstances behind Reed’s hanging are still under investigation. The investigation is conducted by the Cleveland Police Department, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations, and the Bolivar County Sheriff’s Office.
“As of this time, there’s no evidence of foul play,” Peeler said. “While there’s no evidence of foul play, the body has been retrieved by the Bolivar County Coroner’s Office.”
According to the Mississippi Free Press, Bolivar County Deputy Coroner Murray Roark, who assisted a medical examination of Reed’s body, said there was no evidence of broken arms or legs.
“I don’t think I should probably discuss this any further than that. My opinion is that it was self-done, and I have reasons for that,” said Roark, despite the death still being an active investigation.
A video of the horrific scene was apparently circulating online, prompting a Facebook account belonging to a woman named LaShay Reed, presumably a relative of Trey Reed, to take to the social media account to speak on behalf of the family.
“On be half of respect for our Family please please!! don’t do no Post no videos or anything… Just keep us In yall Prayers REED Family / Tillman Family,” the woman posted along with a photo of Trey Reed and family members.
“What done in Dark will come in Light,” she wrote in another post.
As a result of Reed’s death, classes and campus activities have been canceled. However, the campus did not go into full lockdown.
President Ennis stressed that the campus was “safe,” telling reporters, “Delta State University is a beautiful place to be. It’s just unfortunate, this loss that comes heavy to our campus.”
view the rest of the comments
news
Welcome to c/news! We aim to foster a book-club type environment for discussion and critical analysis of the news. Our policy objectives are:
-
To learn about and discuss meaningful news, analysis and perspectives from around the world, with a focus on news outside the Anglosphere and beyond what is normally seen in corporate media (e.g. anti-imperialist, anti-Zionist, Marxist, Indigenous, LGBTQ, people of colour).
-
To encourage community members to contribute commentary and for others to thoughtfully engage with this material.
-
To support healthy and good faith discussion as comrades, sharpening our analytical skills and helping one another better understand geopolitics.
We ask community members to appreciate the uncertainty inherent in critical analysis of current events, the need to constantly learn, and take part in the community with humility. None of us are the One True Leftist, not even you, the reader.
Newcomm and Newsmega Rules:
The Hexbear Code of Conduct and Terms of Service apply here.
-
Link titles: Please use informative link titles. Overly editorialized titles, particularly if they link to opinion pieces, may get your post removed.
-
Content warnings: Posts on the newscomm and top-level replies on the newsmega should use content warnings appropriately. Please be thoughtful about wording and triggers when describing awful things in post titles.
-
Fake news: No fake news posts ever, including April 1st. Deliberate fake news posting is a bannable offense. If you mistakenly post fake news the mod team may ask you to delete/modify the post or we may delete it ourselves.
-
Link sources: All posts must include a link to their source. Screenshots are fine IF you include the link in the post body. If you are citing a Twitter post as news, please include the Xcancel.com (or another Nitter instance) or at least strip out identifier information from the twitter link. There is also a Firefox extension that can redirect Twitter links to a Nitter instance, such as Libredirect or archive them as you would any other reactionary source.
-
Archive sites: We highly encourage use of non-paywalled archive sites (i.e. archive.is, web.archive.org, ghostarchive.org) so that links are widely accessible to the community and so that reactionary sources don’t derive data/ad revenue from Hexbear users. If you see a link without an archive link, please archive it yourself and add it to the thread, ask the OP to fix it, or report to mods. Including text of articles in threads is welcome.
-
Low effort material: Avoid memes/jokes/shitposts in newscomm posts and top-level replies to the newsmega. This kind of content is OK in post replies and in newsmega sub-threads. We encourage the community to balance their contribution of low effort material with effort posts, links to real news/analysis, and meaningful engagement with material posted in the community.
-
American politics: Discussion and effort posts on the (potential) material impacts of American electoral politics is welcome, but the never-ending circus of American Politics© Brought to You by Mountain Dew™ is not welcome. This refers to polling, pundit reactions, electoral horse races, rumors of who might run, etc.
-
Electoralism: Please try to avoid struggle sessions about the value of voting/taking part in the electoral system in the West. c/electoralism is right over there.
-
AI Slop: Don't post AI generated content. Posts about AI race/chip wars/data centers are fine.
Okay cool
You could have just stopped.
(Also not to be an ass but you forgot the "b" in "Black" in the title.)
thanks fixed