Cops sure jumped to "suicide" conclusion for Nevan Baker
Orlando police insist they conducted a thorough investigation into the death of Nevan Baker, 22, who was found hanging from a tree in Orlando’s Barker Park, not far from Camping World Stadium.
Mr. Baker was found before 4 a.m. on Monday (Oct 5th).
By the end of that day, police and medical examiner declared the death a “suicide”.
The “Practical Homicide Investigation” textbook is the
bible for police death investigations. It states: “All death inquiries should
be conducted as homicide investigations until the facts prove differently. The
resolution of the mode of death as Suicide is based on a series of factors
which eliminate Homicide, Accident and Natural Causes of death.”
Attempting to bolster their claim that Mr. Baker’s death
was a suicide, on Friday (10/9) Orlando police sent the news media a one-page
document from the medical examiner’s office (accompanying this article) stating
Mr. Baker’s death was a suicide.
Keep in mind that the medical examiner is an Orange County employee
who works closely with police. Medical examiners are not above suspicion or
bias when it comes to investigating the deaths of black people, as
noted by The Guardian newspaper in an article this summer.
In Minneapolis, the medical examiner concluded George Floyd
died of “cardiopulmonary arrest, complicating law enforcement subdual.” The Colorado
medical examiner who investigated the death of Elijah McClain, who died after
being choked by police listed his cause of death as “undetermined.”
Vernon Geberth, a veteran homicide investigator and author
of “Practical Homicide Investigation” wrote an article acknowledging that death
investigations are complex. Yet there is no room for assumptions or shortcuts.
“If the case is reported as a “Suicide,”’ Mr. Geberth wrote,
“the police officers who respond as well as the investigators automatically
tend to treat the call as a suicide. It
is a critical error in thinking to handle the call based on the initial report.
The immediate problem is that psychologically one is assuming the death to be a
suicide case, when in fact this is a basic death investigation, which could
very well turn out to be a homicide. The
investigator cannot “assume” anything as a professional law enforcement officer.
“Any preconceived theories or notions are dangerous in
professional death investigation. In
addition to errors of assuming a “suicide” or natural death other preconceived
notions may include deaths, which appear to be drug related and/or domestic
violence. One must keep an open mind and
not be influenced either by the initial reports or the presentation in the
crime scene.”
In Mr. Geberth’s article, which you can read by clicking
here, he lays out 7 common mistakes detectives can make while
investigating deaths that may be suicides or homicides.
A few questions that need to be clarified in Mr. Baker’s
death, include:
·
Was there the sign of a struggle? The police
said there were no signs of a struggle. Yet Mr. Baker’s family insist there
were injuries to his face and jaw and a tooth was missing.”
·
How did Mr. Baker get into the tree to hang
himself?
·
Where did the rope come from? His death occurred
after midnight and before 3 a.m.
·
How did he get to Barker Park, which is a few
miles from his home?
·
How was the rope tied?
·
Why would he charge his phone and then kill
himself an hour later?
·
Was there anything in his phone that might
explain why he would kill himself?
Beyond that, the lynch mob’s noose is such powerfully frightening
image to most African Americans -- especially black men.
Why would Mr. Baker choose a noose to kill himself? The
overwhelming majority of suicides in the United States are committed by
middle-age white males. Most of them use a gun to kill themselves.
Many black people don’t trust the police – and for good
reason. To prove Mr. Baker’s death was a suicide, detectives must do more work
and be more transparent with their findings and conclusions.
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