Man Found Hanging In Fair Oaks Park Identified As Kyle Bassinga

Last week, we reported that the body of a 21-year-old man was discovered in a wooded area of Fair Oaks Park in Marietta, Ga., and that the Cobb County Police Department confirmed that investigators found no evidence of foul play and have “determined the death is being investigated as a suicide.” Now, the victim has been reportedly identified as Kyle Bassinga, a Black man, and people, especially Black people, are, once again, left with more questions than answers regarding a pattern of Black people found hanging across the country, and those deaths being ruled or investigated as suicides soon after they are reported.

From 11 Alive:

Four days after Bassinga was found in the park, people visiting that have been there before said they are still searching for answers. One resident told 11Alive’s Sefenech Henok: “Somebody had to see something, somebody had to hear something and everything and everybody is just quiet about it,” adding that while anything is possible, “do I believe throughout the history of this country that that young Black man did that to himself? I’m going to say no.”

Community members are now planning a gathering to remember Bassinga. The New Order National Human Rights Organization is organizing a vigil at the park Tuesday at 11 a.m.

Gerald Rose with the organization said the case felt personal to him. 

“I have to say something because this is my backyard,” he said. “I cant be an activist and something just took place in my own backyard and not say nothing.”

Police said their investigation found no evidence of foul play and that Bassinga’s death has been ruled a suicide. Even so, Rose said many people simply want clarity about what happened.

“We all do understand that we don’t know what happened,” Rose said. “Its just the fact that something did happen. A young man lost his life and we just want to make sure we get to the bottom of this.”

He also said the community wants Bassinga’s family to know they have support. 

“Whether it’s a suicide or whatever I know they are concerned about their child but I want them to know the Black community is concerned as well,” Rose said. “That we care.”

Speculation around Bassinga’s death is also being shared across social media, especially from Black social media users and content creators, with many of them expressing skepticism that a Black man would kill himself by hanging, and many others calling it a lynching.

Again, these reactions don’t come out of nowhere, and they can’t be dismissed as common internet conspiracy theory peddling. There’s a 400-year history of Black people being killed by hanging, and a recent pattern of Black people being found hanging, followed by all-too-swift determinations that they took their own lives.

Last year, the hanging death of 21-year-old Delta State Student Demartravion “Trey” Reed, which was also ruled a suicide, resulted in the same reactions, not just from Black people across social media and the local community in Mississippi, but from his family members, who accused local authorities of showing a lack of transparency, and called for an independent investigation into Reed’s death.

After Reed’s death was reported, we released a report detailing his case and nine others from recent years, involving Black people whose bodies were mysteriously found hanging, and how most of those deaths were also ruled to be suicides.

As for Bassinga, his family responded to the online discourse surrounding his death by saying in a statement to 11 Alive, “Right now, online speculation is the least of our worries. We are focused on burying our son, and am happy to have found him.”

SEE ALSO:

21-Year-Old’s Body Found In Wooded Area Of Georgia Park

Black Man Found Hanging: What Happened To Jayvon Givan?

Black Student Found Hanging At Mississippi’s Delta State University

Trey Reed: Video Evidence Is Being Reviewed In Black Student’s Hanging