Marshawn M. McCarrel II, a well-known 23-year-old Black Lives Matter activist and organizer, was found dead in front of the Ohio State House in Columbus, Ohio Monday night, according to the Columbus Dispatch.
“Authorities were sent a little after 6 p.m. to a shooting at the statehouse where they found McCarrel at the entrance,” Cvetan said.
According to the Huffington Post, McCarrel died of what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound on the steps of State house’s High Street entrance.
No one witnessed the activist shoot himself. McCarrel was pronounced dead at the scene, Cvetan told Vibe Magazine.
Shortly before his death, McCarrel took to social media for a final farewell. He wrote on his Facebook three hours before killing himself.
“My demons won today. I’m sorry,” McCarrel wrote. “Let the record show that I pissed on the state house before I left.”
McCarrel worked with Black Lives Matter to help organize protests in Ohio after Michael Brown, an unarmed teenager, was fatally shot in Ferguson, Mo. by a white cop in 2014.
McCarrel spoke on the importance of protests.
“The protest is a direct statement from the people of this community to law enforcement that black lives matter. It’s not about specific demands; it’s about showing those in power that we want to live,” McCarrell said in a 2015 interview with Columbus Alive.
McCarrel is also founder of Pursuing Our Dreams, an Ohio-based youth mentorship program that helps to fight homelessness and hunger through Feed the Streets, a project launched to help the homeless of Ohio, according to the New York Daily News.
McCarrel battled homelessness himself for three months after he graduated high school.
McCarrel was recently recognized as by Radio One as “Hometown Champion” earlier this year for his work with Pursuing our Dreams.
“Marshawn stresses the importance of having conversations with the people we feed because they'll get hungry in two hours but a good conversation will carry them over for a lifetime,” according to his nomination.
There will be a candlelight vigil held at Dodge Park in Columbus, Ohio, in McCarrel’s honor on Tuesday night.