The half-brother of Robert Fuller, the 24-year-old Black man whose recent hanging death has sparked outrage and suspicions of lynching, was shot and killed by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies on Wednesday during an alleged shootout.
On Wednesday, police said that they tailed a car in which Terron Boone was a passenger before attempting to make a stop around 4:30 p.m. in Rosamond, which is located in nearby Kern County.
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Boone then exited the car and allegedly began firing at police, according to the LA County sheriff’s department, before being shot and killed. A woman driving the car was shot in the chest but was later released from the hospital, while a 7-year-old girl in the backseat was unharmed.
On Tuesday, Boone had been charged with 13 counts including felony domestic violence and false imprisonment, according to Los Angeles County Court records. A sheriff’s department spokesperson told the Los Angeles Times that the stop was made during a kidnapping and assault investigation.
“This afternoon I had to notify the sisters of Robert Fuller that their half-brother Terron Jammal Boone was killed by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies in Kern County,” Fuller family attorney Jamon Hicks said in a press release.
“At this time, until we receive all of the information, the family and their legal team doesn’t have any further comment on this incident. The family respectfully asks that their privacy be respected.”
On June 10, Fuller was found hanging from a tree outside of Palmdale city hall, about 20 miles south of where his brother was killed on Wednesday. Though investigators initially said Fuller’s death was a suicide, his family said Fuller wasn’t suicidal, and after a community outcry, the Department of Justice said it would investigate Fuller’s death.
The feds also said they would review the death of 38-year-old Malcolm Harsch. Just ten days prior to Fuller’s death, on May 31, Harsch’s body was found hanging outside of the city library in Victorville, a little more than 50 miles east of Palmdale.
Thousands gathered last weekend near where Fuller was found to demand justice. “We want to find out the truth of what really happened. Everything that they’ve been telling us has not been right,” Fuller’s sister Diamond Alexander told the Los Angeles Times. “To be here, staring at this tree, it don’t make no sense. My brother was not suicidal. My brother was a survivor.”
Cover: A demonstrator carries a sign reading: “Robert Fuller 4Ever” during an All Black Lives Matter march organized by black members of the LGBTQ community, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles on Sunday, June 14, 2020. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
