An inmate falsely accused by activist Shaun King in the murder of 7-year-old Jazmine Barnes was found dead in his jail cell.
King pushed a theory that Robert Cantrell was behind the drive-by shooting that left Jazmine dead near Houston in December 2018, claiming that Cantrell resembled a sketch police released.
King is a race activist. Cantrell was white. Police eventually arrested two black men in the fatal shooting and said one of them, 20-year-old Eric Black Jr., admitted to the crime.
King ultimately deleted the accusations he posted to his Twitter account and sent to his 1.1 million followers but never apologized for his claim.
The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said that Cantrell, 49, was found dead on the morning of July 23 in a July 29 press release.
He was found hanging from “an apparent suicide attempt,” the office said.
Emergency responders tried reviving Cantrell but he was soon pronounced dead.
Cantrell was arrested on Dec. 30, 2018, on charges of robbery and evasion and was later found to possess over 60 forms of identification that didn’t belong to him, leading to additional charges.
The office and the Texas Rangers are investigating the death. Autopsy and toxicology tests are pending.
“The thoughts of the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office are with the family and friends of Mr. Cantrell during this difficult time,” the office said in a statement.
E. Tay Bond, Cantrell’s lawyer, told KHOU that his client told him before he died that he was worried about the death threats his family was getting because of the false link between him and Jazmine’s murder. Cantrell’s family told ABC earlier this year that they were getting rape and death threats because of King’s post.
Bond said that Cantrell’s family was not pursuing a lawsuit against King right now.
King Promotes Violence
King, who works as a columnist for the Intercept, recently praised an Antifa member who police said tried firebombing an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Washington state before he was shot dead.
King called Willem Van Spronsen “a martyr.”
“Willem Van Spronsen just became the first martyr attempting to liberate imprisoned refugees from a for-profit detention center in Tacoma, Washington. His hero was John Brown—the white abolitionist who led the raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859. This is what our country has come to,” King wrote on Twitter, sharing a picture of the alleged terrorist and two photos honoring him.
King then shared pictures showing a lengthy manifesto that Van Spronsen reportedly left before his attack on the facility.
“We are told that this is the final letter of Willem Van Spronsen—who was shot and killed by law enforcement as he attempted an attack on a for-profit refugee detention center in Tacoma, Washington. It’s a beautiful, painful, devastating letter. He wasn’t crazy—inaction is,” King said.
In the manifesto, Van Spronsen identified himself as a member of Antifa, a far-left extremist groups that openly advocates violence and is rooted in communism.
“This is my clear opportunity to make a difference, I’d be an ingrate to be waiting for a more obvious invitation,” Van Spronsen wrote.
King later shared a picture showing the outside of the Tacoma facility, writing: “This is where Willem was murdered this weekend. His actions will be called terrorism and people will call him crazy, but neither are true. His mind was very clear.”
King later deleted the tweets without explaining why. The Intercept has not commented on King’s glorifying of Van Spronsen.
