D’Angelo Bratton-Bland had several reasons to be excited about 2019. The Lincoln University student body president was in the process of pledging the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and he was on track to graduate in May. He was also looking forward to moving back to his hometown of Chicago to teach special education at his alma mater, Perspectives Math and Science Academy in Bronzeville.
All of those dreams ended last Wednesday when Bratton-Bland was gunned down as he sat in a car with a group of other young men who are also pledging the same fraternity. The shooting occurred in Jefferson City, Missouri the town where Lincoln University is located.
WATCH: Russia targeted Black community in 2016 Elections
The other young men in the car are cooperating with police, but there are still more questions than answers.
Bratton-Bland was openly gay and some wonder if that played a part in his death and if the shooting should be investigated as a hate crime.
“Was this a random, senseless act of violence or was this a calculated, targeted hate crime against a gay man?” asked Bratton-Bland’s sister Ashley Bratton.
“The detective on the case was not cooperative. I never got a chance to view my brother body. I don’t even know if my brother still have his organs in him. I never got a chance to view my brother body,” Ashley Bratton told CBS. “I had to get him shipped from Missouri to Chicago. I don’t even know if that’s who is at the funeral home as we speak right now. I don’t know the autopsy report. I don’t know nothing.”
Jefferson City police maintain that the investigation is on-going and there are currently no suspects. The police also believe that Bratton-Bland was not doing anything illegal at the time of this death.