A 38-year-old Black father of four was found hanging from a basketball rim in Sacramento, California on Monday, prompting calls for an FBI investigation. Willie Brown Jr. has been on life support since he was found, his family said. “I want to get to the bottom of this,” said his brother Jonathan Brown at a candlelight vigil, the Sacramento Bee reports. “I’m not taking that suicide for an answer.” Brown’s family described him as a highly intelligent father who loved his children. “It does not sit right with the family understanding the historical record of Black men being found dead with their deaths ruled suicide all the while being victims of white supremacist hate crimes,” Brown’s oldest son, Jaysean wrote on a Gofundme page created to assist the family with medical and future expenses. Sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Rodney Grassmann said there was no evidence to believe that the hanging was the result of any foul play and that “there is nothing to indicate that this is anything but a suicide.”
