MarShawn McCarrel: Columbus community remembers its 'shining star'
The Ohio-based activist's death rocked the local civil rights community, leaving his loved ones and admirers struggling to understand why he would choose to take his own life.
MarShawn McCarrel, 23, posted on Facebook just hours before his body was found near the Ohio Statehouse where police say he fatally shot himself.
Those who knew civil rights activist MarShaw McCarrel are struggling to reconcile his suicide on Monday night with the inspirational life he led.
The young community leader, who was known for his Black Lives Matter advocacy and community activism efforts, shocked the Columbus community on Monday night when he was found dead outside the Ohio State House, with an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.
While his loved ones say Mr. McCarrel鈥檚 death came as a surprise, a cryptic Facebook status posted hours before his death suggested that he may have been struggling with depression or other mental health issues. 鈥淢y demons won today. I鈥檓 sorry,鈥� it read.
That update was an anomaly on McCarrel鈥檚 usually uplifting and motivating page.聽
鈥淲e waste so much time not loving each other,鈥� he wrote Saturday.聽
鈥淗ey Everybody!! These past few weeks have produced some of the most incredible, nerve wrecking, stressful, eye opening, times of my life,鈥� McCarrel posted on Jan. 21.
Just last week McCarrel attended the NAACP鈥檚 Image Awards after being recognized as a 鈥楬ometown Champion鈥� by Radio One for his work in the community. His work with the homeless and in the Black Lives Matter movement earned him local recognition as a community leader.
"Shawn made an incredible impact and was ," Molly Shack, an organizer with the Ohio Student Association,聽told The Columbus Dispatch. "The ripples around him go very far."
Police are not ready to draw any conclusions about why McCarrel killed himself or why he chose to do so in front of the State House, but some activists who knew him well have suggested that he had intended his death to be a final gesture of political activism.
鈥淭he Statehouse was no accident,鈥� Molly Shack, an organizer with the Ohio Student Association, told The Dispatch. 鈥淲e鈥檝e been working so hard, and yet the conditions for the people in our community and the people that he loved and cared about are still so hard. I have to imagine that that burden weighed a lot on him.鈥澛�
Another OSA organizer, James Hayes, told the Ohio paper that McCarrel made his motives as obvious as possible.
鈥淗e didn鈥檛 want any mysteries,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why he went where he went.鈥澛�
Still others say McCarrel鈥檚 death had nothing to do with his activism efforts.聽
鈥淧eople commit suicide in public for lots of reasons, sometimes you can decipher what the message was and sometimes you can鈥檛,鈥� Jason Hershberger, chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center, told USA Today. 鈥淪ometimes there is a hope that someone could intervene and may have .鈥澛�
Regardless of motivation, relatives and peers mourn the leader鈥檚 death.聽
鈥淚n 27 years, I鈥檝e never had a student who I was more proud of than MarShawn,鈥� his high school teacher Steve Shapiro told The Dispatch. Mr. Shapiro regularly asked McCarrel back to speak with current students. 鈥淚 saw him as a shining star in the future of civil rights.鈥澛�
鈥淗e just wanted ,鈥� said MarShawn鈥檚 twin brother, MarQuan.