A Black Lives Matter activist killed himself on the steps of the Ohio Statehouse, authorities said.
MarShawn McCarrel, 23, shot himself in front of the Columbus building Monday evening, Lt. Craig Cvetan of the State Highway Patrol told the Columbus Dispatch.
“My demons won today. I’m sorry,” the activist, who attended the NAACP Image Awards last Friday, posted on his Facebook page around 3 p.m., just hours before his body was found near the Statehouse.
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His last tweet read: “Let the record show that I pissed on the state house before I left.”
No one witnessed the shooting, Cvetan said. McCarrel was pronounced dead at the scene.
McCarrel, who had recently worked with Black Lives Matter, helped organize protests in Ohio after a Missouri cop shot and killed unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in 2014.
He also founded youth mentorship program Pursuing Our Dreams, which launched Feed the Streets, a project to help Ohio’s homeless.
He attended the NAACP’s Image Awards on Friday, Pursuing Our Dreams wrote on its Facebook. He was named one of Radio One’s Hometown Champions, an award for community activists and volunteers, earlier this year and earned a trip to the California awards show.
“He is selfless and will give his last in order to make sure others don’t go without,” read a nomination page for the Hometown Champions Award. “MarShawn has come so far in life and has inspired so many people to help others”
“All everyone needs is love,” he told 614 Columbus in 2014, referring to his work with the Feed the Streets. “That’s a human being. That’s a pulse. We’re feeding everyone, we’re sending the message — today I got you; tomorrow, I could be right there.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
