Delta State University and law enforcement officials held a press conference Wednesday to provide an update on the status of an investigation into a Black student found hanging from a tree on campus while using the opportunity to address rumors circulating online about the incident.
The body of 21-year-old Demartravion “Trey” Reed, a native of Grenada, Mississippi, was discovered by a university staffer early Monday morning. Within the following 48 hours, many had gone to social media to claim it was a modern-day lynching in a state with a history of racist violence.
Police immediately said otherwise, vouching during a Monday afternoon press conference that no foul play is suspected. A coroner’s preliminary examination found Reed did not have any broken bones of “injuries consistent with assault,” despite online comments suggesting otherwise.
“At this point, we don’t have evidence of foul play,” Delta State police chief Michael Peeler reiterated during Wednesday’s press conference.
Peeler added that Reed’s body has been transported to the Mississippi State Crime Lab in Pearl with examinations underway. Preliminary autopsy results are expected to be released within the next two days, he said.
Dr. Daniel Ennis, the university’s president, addressed claims by one of Reed’s attorneys, Veronica Jones, in which she told reporters Tuesday that Ennis has not reached out to the family, according to WREG-TV. Ennis has maintained since the incident that he has been in frequent contact with Reed’s next of kin, which are the two emergency contacts he submitted upon enrolling as a student at the university of Cleveland. He did not disclose who those people were.
“He told us who he wanted to talk to in the event of an emergency and that’s what we continue to do. I can go ahead and say that I recognize that some family are not the names Trey gave us,” Ennis explained. “I am so, so sorry. We are sharing all the information that we can and will continue to work through the people that the student chose when he put his name on that form. … That’s the kind of protocol that almost every university in America would follow, and if we do not follow that protocol, I don’t think we’re being respectful to the choice the student made.”
Ennis also said the university has received threats from non-students, prompting additional law enforcement presence on campus.
“Folks who threaten our institution are hurting students. We are supposed to be a place where students come to feel safe and learn,” he said.
Jones, who is working alongside prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump to represent Reed’s family, is calling for any video of the incident to be turned over to the family.
“As we move forward, we’re just looking for answers that a simple camera on the university’s campus would answer,” Jones said. “The media knew about this before Trey’s family did.”
Peeler noted during Wednesday’s press conference that the evidence does include video footage, but he did not specify where it came from and if or when it will be shown to the family citing the ongoing investigation.
“There are videos, and they’re in the hands of the investigative team,” he said. The investigation is currently being carried out by the Delta State University Police Department, Cleveland Police Department, Bolivar County Sheriff’s Department, and Mississippi Bureau of Investigation.
Crump, who has represented the families of Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, and Henrietta Lacks, among other cases, said in a statement that he and Jones are working with various civil rights groups on a “full, independent investigation to uncover the truth about what happened.” That would include an independent autopsy.
U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, who represents the area of Mississippi the school is located in, has called for a federal investigation into Reed’s death.
