Earlier this month, on Oct. 17. Ferguson activist Melissa McKinnies found her 24-year-old son Danye Jones dead, hanging from a tree.
McKinnies, well known in her community, having participated in numerous protests in Ferguson since the Aug. 2014 death of Michael Brown, believes that her son was lynched. In a Facebook post that has since been deleted, McKinnies shared graphic images of her son under the caption, “They lynched my baby.”
“I’m sick and losing my mind but I had to let the world see what they did to my baby!,” she added.
Screenshots of the post and images have since been shared across social media (linked post contains graphic images) as many people ask, not only what happened to Danye Jones, but why is no one reporting on the incident?
The hashtag #DanyeJones has been circulated across Twitter.
This is #DanyeJones. His mom, Melissa McKinnies, is a #Ferguson Activist.
Danye was found hanging from a tree in his mom’s backyard on 10/17. The police didn’t investigate, but called it a suicide.
But Danye has just bought property to sell & his mother knows this isn’t true. pic.twitter.com/BYkaDehz9X
— Brittany Packnett (@MsPackyetti) October 31, 2018
Danye Jones was murdered. His lynching was no suicide. #DanyeJones #BlackLivesMatter #Ferguson
— Eugene B. Johnson (@eugenejohnson_) October 31, 2018
#DanyeJones was lynched. Write about it. https://t.co/rCf94psjJu
— Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🙅🏽♀️ 🇧🇧🌈 (@IBJIYONGI) October 31, 2018
Jones’ death has once again stirred conversation around various other activists in Ferguson who have died since 2014 under seemingly suspicious circumstances.
In 2014, Deandre Joshua, 20, was found shot once in the head, and then set on fire inside his car the same day a grand jury refused to indict Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown. Prominent Ferguson activist Darren Seals was also found dead inside of a burning car back in 2016. He had also been shot. And then there was the 2017 death of Edward Crawford, the activist captured in the iconic photo tossing a canister of tear gas away from those protesting Brown’s death. Police claimed that he died of a “self-inflicted” wound while in the back seat of his own car.
#DanyeJones is at least the 4th person related to the #Ferguson uprising to die in more than suspicious circumstances.
This is a pattern. https://t.co/b1GqRbdTKu
— Brittany Packnett (@MsPackyetti) October 31, 2018
ESSENCE has reached out to McKinnies for comment and will update the story as more information becomes available.
