Man shoots himself in the head, twice: Police call it suicide

[pecunium]

I wish the story were as funny as the header.

Body of man, bound with duct tape, washes ashore

The police are tending to call it a suicide, saying he could have done it himself.

Austin police said Thursday that they are leaning toward a ruling of suicide in the death of a middle school teacher and activist whose body was found Wednesday in Lady Bird Lake with his hands and legs bound and tape over his eyes.

Right... because it's typical for those who drown themselves to put tape over their eyes and bind their hands and legs with tape before they jump into the water.

There are other things which raise my sense of suspicion. The guy was an activist, the FBI had been looking into him; though they said he wasn't any sort of trouble, FBI questioned his neighbors, and he implied that someone was interfering with what he did.

I hate that I think the reason this is being so quickly glossed over is that he was helping Palastinians. He was arab, and the evidence on the ground, per the APD is thin (they said in the notice of preliminary determination that there was no evidence of another person at his car.

I hate that I think a similar event, were it someone sending similar types of aid to Christians in Saudi Arabia, would get a lot more attention, even if it was a suicide.

Comments

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

"Police identified Riad Hamad, 55, at a news conference Thursday and said the binding of his limbs and the placement of the tape was consistent with Hamad having done it himself." -- Could he have taped his hands and legs, then . . . did they find an empty roll of duct tape by the water? Is that at all possible? I can only see it if he sat right at the water's edge, managed that somehow, then rolled himself in, but there would be more evidence than that.

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

The information is pretty thin, but it doesn't sound outright ridiculous. I'm sceptical, but I doubt we'll see enough evidence to decide for ourselves. It used to be that Coroner's Courts in England were a bit reluctant to class a death as suicide, but if the press release is right about the tape, and the lack of signs of other people, it'd be hard to say it was something else.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

It's possible, and I can even come up with several, plausible, scenarios for it.

But Occam's razor tells me to be suspicious of them, and I'd like to see a more transparent explantion of how the police came to this conclusion.

[ad-kay.livejournal.com]

My god. I was acquainted with him. I used to buy Palestinian-made soaps and other handicrafts from him every Christmas. And some of the people he was helping were Arab Christians.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Yes, and I left that out, in part because they don't (in the popular mind) exist. Palestinian = Arab, Arab = Anti-Israel/Arab = terrorist.

It's not right (and it's not all-pervasive), but that's the common narrative, and it's why this isn't getting more play.

[sanity-cheque.livejournal.com]

The police said he fell down an elevator shaft...onto some bullets.

- mystery men

Thanks for posting about this, Terry.

[shunra.livejournal.com]

Riad left two (grown, I think) children, a long-time partner, and five cats. His students (he was a middle school teacher) are horrified - he was much liked by them. Computer classes, apparently - "technology" is what he taught.

And he raised money for things like wells and wellness by selling the most wonderful olive oil, along with Palestinian craft items.

His death is a loss to non-violent support of the children of Palestine.

Re: Thanks for posting about this, Terry.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Least I could do.

It pisses me off (not so much because I think it not a suicide; I don't know enough; and [with no intent to cause pain] it's not what pissed me off), that something which will obviously cause questions is so simplisiticly dealt with by the police, cavalierly accepted by the press and ignored by the public at large.

To get a decent press back we have to excercise oversight.

I'm sorry for you, and his family. I wish it weren't this way (because if he did kill himself, I am certain a lot of the "stressors" were gov't caused, on top of all the other crap he got for helping, "those people").

Re: Thanks for posting about this, Terry.

[shunra.livejournal.com]

A decent press would be a very good thing to have. It may be a prerequisite for healing the civic participation in this country.

And of course you don't know enough - no one does. We can't know if the information is being kept silent... the Austin ACLU has been approached; maybe they'll file a FOIA request? It is too soon to know (and probably, far too soon to act). But if the story is discussed, and heard, we've got more chance of finding out what really happened. Whatever it may be.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

The phrase "not inconsistent with..." bothers me. It doesn't seem to be sufficient grounds for writing-off any serious inquiry in a situation where at least three groups of Political Fanatics (plus a substantial number of random individuals) could be expected to have motives to murder him.

[momwolf.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of the notorious case in Dallas where a man was found chained to his motorcycle, in the river, shot five times in the back and still ruled a suicide.

The ruling, unless witnesses to the contrary come forth, will most likely stand.

[mplsvala.livejournal.com]

Wow. This seems so unlikely that you'd think they'd go to some length to explain how they arrived at that conclusion. And given that he works in a field which might lead to tensions with groups of others, you'd think that they would pay special attention to making sure they weren't missing something. Thanks for pointing this out. We should notice things like this.

[antiquated-tory.livejournal.com]

Is the investigation officially closed yet? Because I don't think there would be any chance of getting full info from the cops until then.