On this day three years ago, a Missouri teen went to a party and never returned home. Instead, he was found dead from a gunshot wound. While investigators concluded his death was a suicide, his family still believes his death was a racially-motivated murder.
Deronatae Martin, 19, rode with a classmate to a home in Fredericktown, Missouri, for a prom after party April 25, 2021. Around 3 a.m. police say shots were heard from inside the attic of the home. One witness told the police they saw Martin shoot himself after displaying paranoid behavior from a series of drugs in his system, per The AP. However, the report says one witness claimed a man later confessed to being the shooter. They “didn’t like N-words” was the alleged rationale.
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That alleged suspect was the owner of the home: a white man who allegedly touted racist rhetoric online, Martin’s family claimed. The report says on the unnamed man’s social media, you’ll find confederate flags, insults to foreign accents and a picture of a middle finger with the caption “Here’s my apology for being white.”
Additionally, Martin’s family also paid for an independent autopsy that revealed Martin was shot from a distance.
The very thought of Martin dying by the hands of someone else led the FBI to launch an investigation. However, Wednesday, investigators came to a conclusion that ruled out any possibility of foul play.
Chris Crocker, acting special agent from the FBI’s St. Louis division, said Martin’s death was “a self-inflicted gunshot wound” and “not a homicide or a hate crime,” the report says. The consensus was that someone was with Martin when he shot himself, but they were there trying to talk him out of it. It’s still unclear who that person was.
“We really took extraordinary steps in this case to make sure we reached the right conclusion,” Crocker told reporters.
Martin’s mother, Ericka Lott, maintains that her son was murdered. No one has been arrested in connection with Martin’s death.
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