It was a disturbing discovery – a black teenage boy hanging from a swing set in a trailer park in North Carolina.
Was it a suicide or a lynching?
The state has determined that 17-year-old Lennon Lacy committed suicide in August.
But the New York Times reports that the FBI has agreed to join an inquiry after family members and the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP urged the bureau to intervene.
The formal request for the FBI’s involvement came from Thomas G. Walker, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
Last week, a march was organized to show solidarity with Lacy.
“They have the resources and the mandate of law and the kind of specialized training to look at these facts on all sides,” the Rev. William J. Barber II, the president of the North Carolina N.A.A.C.P. and an organizer of Saturday’s march, said of the F.B.I.
The state has defended its handling of the investigation and said there was no evidence of a lynching.
