Family of Black man killed by white neighbor demands coroner resign over online posts
Crawford County Coroner Darren Dake, who investigated Justin King's death in Missouri, likened Black Lives Matter and to the Ku Klux Klan
The family of a Black Missouri man fatally shot by a white neighbor late last year is calling for a county coroner to resign over social media posts he previously made.
Crawford County Coroner Darren Dake, who led the investigation that determined Justin King was killed in self-defense on Nov. 3, compared Black Lives Matter to the Ku Klux Klan and Nazis in years-old Facebook posts reported Wednesday by the The Daily Beast.
King, 28, was slain following an altercation with a neighbor in their Bourbon, Missouri trailer park, according to the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office.
Officials in Bourbon — a town located about 76 miles southwest of St. Louis — declined to arrest or release the name of King’s killer after a coroner’s inquest and a prosecutor concluded that the shooting was in self-defense, according to the Associated Press.
In one post, Dake suggested that BLM and the KKK are cut from the same cloth.
“If you’re going to condemn hate then you have to condemn all of it,” Dake wrote on his personal Facebook page in August 2017. “KKK and BLM are the same racist coin.”
His comments came days after the Unite the Right white supremacist rally that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Dake also shared a video on Facebook in which MRC-TV content creator Brittany Hughes equated Black Lives Matter and Antifa to Nazis and the Klan.
“They’re two sides of the same racist coin and we need to start calling them out for the violent losers they are,” Hughes said in the video.
Dake emphatically endorsed Hughes’ comments writing, “YES, YES, YES, and AMEN. I usually stay far away from posting my opinion, but this is not opinion, its (sic) fact.”
The Daily Beast also published screenshots further illustrating Dake’s conservative political views. They included Facebook posts of him showing his support for the pro-police Blue Lives Matter movement and repeating the “Let’s Go Brandon” slogan used to poke fun at President Joe Biden.
Those views drew condemnation on Thursday from King’s family and their attorney Rod Chapel, who characterized Dake’s social media posts as “overtly racist and dehumanizing,” according to the Associated Press.
Chapel also told reporters that Dake’s posts “demonstrate his reluctance and preconceived biases, which prevent him from completing his professional responsibilities in a way required by statute,” the AP reported.
“I have seldom seen a coroner act with such antagonism and callous disregard for victims of murder,” Chapel wrote in a statement reported by the AP.
Dake defended himself on Facebook on Thursday, saying that none of the county officials involved in King’s death investigation have used “any form of bias.”
“Our mission and commitment, for this and every case, is to center decisions firmly on facts and evidence,” Dake wrote. “I believe attempts to create a racial aspect where none existed, is a travesty that actually weakens legitimate claims. The only racist bias shown in this case came from reporter, Dorian Geiger, and Nimrod Chapel Jr, the family’s attorney.”
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