On a Saturday afternoon last month, during a Caribbean-themed carnival celebration in downtown Raleigh, a 32-year-old Black man was found hanged from a tree in a parking lot located off of South McDowell Street.
Raleigh’s police chief said publicly that video footage confirms the man’s death was a suicide and noted that the man’s mother told police that her son had a history of mental health challenges.
“We lost a young man this past weekend, just less than a block from here,” said Rob Stephens, a pastor and activist with the Men of Southeast Raleigh. He was speaking outside of the Wake County Justice Center, where Wake County’s Board of Commissioners will make what is likely to be the most consequential decision around health care for millions of residents that the region has seen in decades…