BOURBON, Mo. BOURBON, Mo. — A family of a Black Missourian man who was killed by a neighbor has asked for the resignation from the county coroner. They are unhappy with his handling of the case and his comments on social media that they call racist.
Rod Chapel, a lawyer representing Justin King’s family, and president of Missouri NAACP wrote Wednesday to several state coroner oversight board members, describing Crawford County Coroner Darren Dake’s social media posts “overtly racist” and “dehumanizing.”
King, 28 years old, was shot by his neighbor on Nov. 3, in Bourbon, Missouri. This town has 1,600 residents and is about 75 miles southwest from St. Louis.
Inquest by the coroner and Crawford County Prosecuting attorney David S. Smith concluded that King was killed in self-defense. King’s family, civil right leaders, and other neighbors have asked why the shooter was not charged.
Chapel requested an investigation in the letter. He cited a 2017 Facebook post by the coroner, where he compared Black Lives Matter to the Ku Klux Klan. Chapel wrote that “KKK” and “BLM are the same racist coin.”
Chapel stated that Dake’s posts “demonstrate the reluctance of Dake and his preconceived biases which hinder him from fulfilling his professional responsibilities in the way required by statute.”
Dake posted a statement on his Facebook page Thursday claiming that racism was not an issue in King’s murder investigation. Chapel had a racist bias against law enforcement and Caucasian citizens, he said.
Dake stated, “I can assure you that none of the county officials involved in this investigation did any inappropriate thing or used any form bias during this investigation.”
Although he claimed his comments on Facebook were not in context, he doubled down on his criticisms of Black Lives Matter and called it a “hate organization”.
Dake stated, “A close inspection of my words will reveal that I was calling attention to ALL prejudice, even that of the hate group BLM.”
Chapel claimed that Dake discriminated against King’s family during the investigation into his death. He described King’s treatment of them as “antagonistic,” unhelpful, and overtly inconsiderate.”
Chapel wrote, “I have never seen a coroner act so antagonistically and callous disregard for victims murder victims,”
Chapel claimed that Dake did not provide King’s corpse photo to the jury. He then asked the jurors for a false statement stating they had seen King’s bodies. Dake didn’t respond to Chapel’s Facebook post. An Associated Press call to his office for comment was not returned on Thursday.
According to the Crawford County prosecutor, King was originally upset on Nov. 23, when a neighbor accused him for letting his dogs loose of their chains. Smith claimed that King was calmed down by the man who shot him. Smith stated that King’s audio and interior surveillance video showed a “friendly interaction”, with King telling Smith, “Love you bro.”
Smith stated that King’s behavior dramatically changed about 50 minutes later for reasons that even his girlfriend, and daughter were not able to understand. Smith stated that King ran out of King’s home shouting incoherently from the security camera.
King was seen banging on the door of the man and eventually getting into his house. Smith claimed that there was no footage of King entering the house but that there was a struggle outside on a porch. Smith claimed that the shooter was holding a gun and King fell to his death. He was shot three times, including one fatal shot to his heart.
According to authorities, the shooter claimed King threatened him with death and threw one television across the room. He also damaged another. King pulled out a gun from the man and attempted to flee, but he caught him. This led to the fatal encounter.
Missouri’s “castle doctrine”, a law that allows for the use of deadly force against intruders, allows it.
Inquest into King’s Death marked the second coroner’s inquest in six month to investigate the suspicious death in Missouri of a young Black man.
Derontae Mart was just 19 when he died at a Madison County party. The host of the party was a man who had a history of posting racist comments and making social media posts. Although Martin was initially believed to have committed suicide, an inquest jury of the coroner determined that he had died from “violence” and not suicide.
