Story out of Franklin County, Ohio:
McCarrel, 23, of Franklin Township, fatally shot himself on the threshold of the Statehouse on Monday, a few hours after posting on Facebook: "My demons won today. I'm sorry."
State troopers, who patrol the Statehouse, said they didn't know his motivation. But for friends who had stood alongside him during protests, sometimes on the Statehouse lawn, the message was clear: Those in power are not good listeners, and not their brothers' keepers.
"The Statehouse was no accident," said Molly Shack, an organizer with the Ohio Student Association. "We've been working so hard, and yet the conditions for the people in our community and the people that he loved and cared about are still so hard. I have to imagine that that burden weighed a lot on him."
Family and friends, about 200 of whom gathered Tuesday night for a candlelight vigil at Dodge Park, said McCarrel's loss is profound. But they stressed that so is his legacy of grass-roots advocacy, from feeding the homeless to speaking out on behalf of the Black Lives Matter campaign. McCarrel died only three days after he was honored in California as one of 15 Radio One Hometown Champions. Cont.
Story from - Columbus Dispatch
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