Edward Crawford, The Ferguson Protestor In Iconic Tear Gas Photo, Has Been Found Dead

Police claim he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

May 05, 2017

Edward Crawford, the protestor captured in an iconic photograph hurling a tear gas canister during the Ferguson protests in 2014, has died, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has reported. He was 27.

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Crawford's father Edward Sr. told the Post-Dispatch that he died of a gunshot wound, which police are treating as self-inflicted. Crawford Sr. told the newspaper that his son had been in "good spirits," recently, and was in the midst of training for a new job and moving in to a new apartment.

The photograph, shot by Robert Cohen, became one of the defining documents of the Ferguson protests, which erupted in the St. Louis suburb after a grand jury declined to charge Officer Darren Wilson with a crime in the shooting death of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown.

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Edward Crawford stepped forward as the photo's subject as it began circulating around the world. “I didn’t throw a burning can back at police, I threw it out of the way of children," Crawford told the Post-Dispatch in August 2015. He was cited for interfering with a police officer and assault.

Crawford is the second high-profile Ferguson protestors to be found dead of gunshot wounds in recent months. Darren Seals, a well-known activist in the community, was found shot dead in a burning car on September 2016. His case remains unsolved. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, a member of the Missouri Senate, tweeted her belief that Ferguson protestors are being hunted.

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Soon after his death, The Daily Beast reported that Seals was the sixth man in two years to be found gunned down inside a burning vehicle..

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Robert Cohen remembered Crawford's spirit of comradery during the protests. "Will never forget Ed 'Skeeda' Crawford coming to my aid in #Ferguson after getting pepper sprayed after the anniv of #MikeBrown's death," he wrote on Twitter.

Thumbnail photo by Robert Cohen

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Edward Crawford, The Ferguson Protestor In Iconic Tear Gas Photo, Has Been Found Dead