Culture

Police Say This Black, Queer Teenager Took Her Own Life. Advocates Believe She Was Lynched


 

A Black, queer teenager was found hanging from a tree in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, a predominantly white town, last month. The mysterious circumstances surrounding her death have prompted calls for an investigation, as well as allegations that police have mishandled the case.

Mikayla Miller’s body was discovered the morning of April 18 after she reportedly got into a fight with two other teens. Miller’s mother, Calvina Strothers, alleged that police in Hopkinton — a town of just under 15,000 people 36 miles outside of Boston — dismissed her daughter’s death as a suicide. She added that an unnamed officer warned Strothers not to go to the press or Miller’s sexuality would be exposed, according to the Boston Globe.

“My concern is, did they really thoroughly look at the crime scene?” Strothers told the newspaper. “Or did they just dismiss it because she’s a Black girl on a tree in Hopkinton?”

A large crowd of community members gathered at a rally and candlelight vigil on Thursday to call on police to fully investigate Miller’s death, which many believe was a lynching. Organized by Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson and the advocacy group Violence in Boston, attendees demanded information from Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan concerning the teen’s death and chanted Miller’s name.

“If they would not have immediately made a conclusion regarding my child’s death, and did a proper investigation, or did any investigation initially at all, we wouldn’t be here,” Strothers told rallygoers, in comments reported by the Boston CBS affiliate WBZ-TV.

Her mother told the Globe she believes Miller was attacked by a group of teenagers on the evening of April 17, shortly after Miller had a falling out with her girlfriend. Strothers said she questioned whether her daughter died by suicide, and many in the community are alleging a police cover-up.

Monica Cannon-Grant, founder of Violence in Boston, told the Globe that Ryan should “step down and let the FBI handle this case.” She said Violence in Boston would perform its own independent autopsy of Miller’s body.

Ryan called allegations of a cover-up due to Miller’s race or sexuality “patently false,” the Globe reported. She said in a statement provided to the local news site Patch that the exact cause of Miller’s death isn’t yet known but added that it doesn’t appear to be the result of a hate crime. She said the DA’s office is waiting for autopsy results.



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