Families of black men found hanging from trees in California ask for deeper investigations into deaths

The families of Robert Fuller and Malcolm Harsch, two black men who were recently found hanging from trees in Southern California's High Desert region, are calling on law enforcement to further investigate their deaths to determine if foul play was involved.

Fuller, 24, was found early Wednesday morning in Palmdale, his body hanging from a tree across from Palmdale City Hall, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said. In a statement, Palmdale officials said Fuller "tragically committed suicide," but law enforcement said his autopsy has not been finished.

Community members attended a news conference on Friday, wanting to know why officials were so quick to say Fuller died by suicide. Several recounted racist acts they witnessed or experienced in Palmdale, the Los Angeles Times reports, and one man said he believed Fuller's body was placed in the tree as a message to Black Lives Matter protesters. City Manager J.J. Murphy told the residents that perhaps authorities "should have said it was an 'alleged suicide,'" adding, "Can I also ask that we stop talking about lynchings?" The crowd responded, "Hell no!"

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At a rally Saturday, Fuller's sister, Diamond Alexander, said her brother was "not suicidal. He wasn't." She said the authorities have been telling her family mixed messages, "and we just want to know the truth."

About 50 miles east, in Victorville, the body of Harsch, 38, was found hanging from a tree on the morning of May 31. His body was found near a homeless encampment, where people said he was living. A spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff-Coroner's Department said there is no evidence of foul play, but the investigation is continuing. Relatives said they have been told the autopsy is done, but the cause of death has not been revealed.

"We are really just trying to get more answers as to what happened," his sister, Harmonie Harsch, told The New York Times. In a statement to the Victor Valley News, the Harsch family said "considering the current racial tension, a black man hanging himself from a tree definitely doesn't sit well with us right now." Harsch was tall, standing six feet three inches, the family said, and witnesses told them he "wasn't even dangling from the tree." They fear that his death "will be waved off as a suicide to avoid any further media attention," and they seek "justice, not comfortable excuses."