Family of Robert Fuller, Black man found hanging from tree, seeks 'truth'

Thousands of protesters gathered in Palmdale on Saturday to mourn the death of a young Black man who was found hanging from a tree near City Hall this week, an incident that has sparked alarm in the Antelope Valley as investigators try to determine whether the man’s death was a suicide or if foul play was involved.

Authorities initially said they suspected suicide in the death of 24-year-old Robert Fuller, but then backed off that statement and ordered an autopsy. His body was found hanging from a tree near City Hall early Wednesday.

Robert Fuller was found hanging from a tree in Palmdale this week.

(Courtesy Tommie Anderson)

Many of the people at Saturday’s memorial expressed anger and frustration at Fuller’s death and what they see as a rush by authorities to label it a suicide. On Friday, Lt. Kelly Yagerlener of the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s office said a decision on the cause of Fuller’s death has been deferred pending an investigation. A full autopsy is planned.

“They suspect suicide?” one woman in the crowd said Saturday. “How can they say that? I can say I suspect a lynching.”

“I believe the family deserves the benefit of the doubt. Not the coroner’s office,” said one man, who said he planned to ask the district attorney to investigate the death.

Diamond Alexander, Fuller’s sister, addressed the growing multiethnic crowd in the courtyard behind Palmdale’s City Hall.

“We want to find out the truth on what really happened,” an emotional Alexander said. “Everything they told us is not right. We just want the truth. My brother was not suicidal. He was a survivor. He was street smart.”

Another speaker, Pharoah Mitchell, called on the small green space to be renamed Robert Fuller Memorial Park.

Activist Najee Ali then led the crowd, which by noon had swelled to about 2,000, on a half-mile march down the center of Sierra Highway to the Palmdale Sheriff’s Station, where he first took a knee for a moment of silence before pounding on the glass doors of the building demanding to speak with an officer.

A dozen deputies in riot helmets stood tightly bunched on the other side of the tinted glass as a sheriff’s department helicopter circled overhead. After a half-hour wait, Lt. Derrick Ballentine, the watch commander, came out a side door to address the crowd and take questions.

Fuller’s death is still being investigated by homicide detectives, Ballentine said, though he had no updates. The lieutenant said he, personally, would have no problem with an independent probe, which Ali intends to call for on Monday.

But Ballentine said that was not his call. After he spoke, the marchers returned to City Hall in a peaceful march.

Fuller’s death has generated intense attention, especially after weeks of protests over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Kim Kardashian West tweeted about the case, urging people to sign a petition demanding a full investigation.

Community members confronted city officials at a news briefing Friday, questioning why they were quick to label Fuller’s death a suicide and asking whether he might have been a homicide victim.

The residents asked whether there were cameras around the park. The city said there were no outdoor cameras, and video recorders on a nearby traffic signal could not have captured what happened.

Some of the community members detailed examples of racism in the high desert city, including Confederate flags, and said officials should not be quick to dismiss it as playing a role in Fuller’s death.

“We have a history with nooses. We don’t like ropes around our necks,” said one man. “It was a message for the protest we had in Palmdale and Lancaster.”

City Manager J.J. Murphy acknowledged, “Maybe we should have said it was ‘an alleged suicide.’” Then he added: “Can I also ask that we stop talking about lynchings?”

The audience erupted with cries of “Hell no!”

“I have doubts about what happened,” said Marisela Barajas, who lives in Palmdale. After the news conference, Barajas walked over and joined a crowd gathering at the tree where Fuller‘s body was found. An American flag flew nearby.

“All alone, in front of the City Hall — it’s more like a statement,” she said. “Even if it was a suicide, that in itself is kind of a statement.”

On Saturday, several marches were scheduled throughout Los Angeles County to decry police brutality in the wake of Floyd’s death.

More than a hundred congregants and friends of the Cochran Avenue Baptist Church marched through Mid-Wilshire protesting the treatment of Black people across the country.

At one point Pastor Charles Johnson asked the marchers to take a knee. He then lead them in prayer.

“We pray for a public witness to all the injustice that’s in our community,” he proclaimed.

The marchers headed along San Vicente Boulevard winding through residential streets with a stop in a neighborhood known as Little Ethiopia. They were heading to the La Brea Tar Pits.

Antoinette Jordan, 50, marched alongside her boyfriend, Quinn. Jordan attends the church and said it was her third protest march.

Throughout these protests she’s been thinking of her adult sons who are medical caregivers. The last few months have been hard for them.

“You got COVID you gotta worry about and then you gotta worry about being a Black man,” she said.

These demonstrations “help give people a voice,” she said, “I learned: The louder you sing, the more audible you are, the better your message comes across.”

Meanwhile, Palmdale officials said they support an independent investigation of case.

``The City of Palmdale is joining the family (of Robert Fuller) and the community’s call for justice, and we do support a full investigation intohis death,’' Palmdale Public Information Officer John Mlynar said. ``We will settle for nothing less than a thorough accounting of this matter.”

City News Service and Times Staff Writer Kiera Feldman contributed to this report.