Ferguson protest leader Darren Seals found dead in burning vehicle (UPDATE)

Christophere Mele
New York Times
Tue, 06 Sep 2016 14:24 UTC

Darren Seals

The body of an activist from St. Louis who led protests about the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014 was found with a gunshot wound in the charred remains of a vehicle on Tuesday morning, according to the police and news accounts.

The activist, Darren Seals, 29, was found inside the vehicle on Diamond Drive in Riverview in St. Louis County around 1:50 a.m., the St. Louis County Police Department said in a statement. The vehicle had been on fire and he was found after the flames were extinguished.

The police said Mr. Seals had lived at an address on Millburn Drive in St. Louis, about 12 miles from where his body was found. The case is being investigated as a homicide by the department's Bureau of Crimes Against Persons. The motive for the killing was unknown.

The police identified Mr. Seals as Daren Seals, although other records listed the spelling of his first name as Darren, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

On his Twitter account, Mr. Seals described himself as a businessman, revolutionary, activist and "Unapologetically BLACK, Afrikan in AmeriKKKa, Fighter, Leader."

He helped lead protests after Mr. Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot and killed on Aug. 9, 2014, by Darren Wilson, a white police officer, in Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis.

The shooting prompted protests that roiled the area for weeks. On Nov. 24, 2014, the St. Louis County prosecutor announced that a grand jury had decided not to indict Mr. Wilson. That announcement set off another wave of protests.

In an interview with MTV.com, Mr. Seals described the night the grand jury announcement was made. He said he was with Mr. Brown's mother and some friends outside the Ferguson Police Department.

He said the decision not to indict the officer was "the ultimate slap in the face."

"And for Mike Brown's mother to be right there in my arms crying — she literally cried in my arms — it was like I felt her soul crying," he said. "It's a different type of crying. I've seen people crying, but she was really hurt. And it hurt me. It hurt all of us."

Mr. Seals led protests with the group Hands Up United, which was organizing a campaign called Polls Ova Police, which sought to use this year's elections to challenge police policies.

"The broken systems and policies that police enforce must be challenged," the project said on its website. "We will not vote in favor of any candidate partnering with those who are not fighting for Black life. Polls Ova Police is the war cry of this generation."

Comment: From The Root:

This is the second time in less than two years that a young black man with some connection with the Ferguson uprising has been found dead inside of a car after being shot and set on fire.

In November 2014, during the protests that followed a grand jury's refusal to indict Wilson in Brown's shooting death, DeAndre Joshua, 20, was found shot once in the head inside of a burning car. Bloodied glass was discovered on the ground beside his white Pontiac Grand Prix right next to Canfield Green Apartments where Michael Brown Jr. was slain.

-Kirsten West Savali

UPDATE: Activists point fingers at police over suspicious death of Ferguson protester Darren Seals

The violent murder of Ferguson Uprising protester Darren Seals, who was found shot and burned in a charred car Tuesday near the US city of St Louis, has raised "a lot of red flags" for activists, who question the official version of events released by his "enemies," the police.

Many believe it was a targeted attack.

As leading anti-racism campaigner Tariq Nasheed pointed out, a tweet posted by Seals in late July raised "a lot of red flags."
Seals had said he was pulled over by 10 armed detectives pointing their guns at him and his teenage brother, telling him,"choose your enemies wisely."

Local St Louis activist Heather De Mian said she was disturbed by finding various pieces of debris and what appeared to be shell casings left behind by police investigators from the vehicle where Seals had been found.

"The memorial is constructed on top of his car door, which the police just left there," De Mian said, the Washington Post reports. "You would think the car door would be important evidence, that there might be fingerprints, you know. The police just left it there."

Another Twitter user also confirmed De Mian's account and showed images of bullet casings allegedly littered around the crime scene.

What is notable about the killing is that Seals is not the only Ferguson man to have been shot and set alight in a car.

The latest incident makes him the sixth person to be found in such circumstances. In the case of DeAndre Joshua, who was also shot dead before his killer or killers set his car on fire on the November 2014 night of the grand jury decided not to charge Darren Wilson for Michael Brown's death, speculation continues over the murder.