An innocent man in #Houston was falsely accused of murder by #BlackLivesMatter leader Shaun King.
Now the man is dead.
For those who don't know, Shaun King is a controversial radical extremist.
Yesterday he actually made national news headlines after calling for the destruction of Christian churches all over America. He's also been recently accused of stealing millions of dollars in donations from black rights charities by people in his own movement.
Suffice to say, he's not a very nice guy.
Shaun has accumulated a lot of attention today from the media, but let's not forget the under-reported story from last summer when he accused an innocent Houston man of murdering a little girl. That man committed suicide in his jail cell.
According to the Daily Caller, Robert Cantrell, 49, was found dead July 23 of last year in a Montgomery County jail cell. He had been held there since Dec. 30, 2018, on evasion and robbery charges. Cantrell was arrested the same day Jazmine Barnes was shot and killed while riding in a car with her mother and siblings. Barnes’s death was a national story and her mother, LaPorsha Washington, said the shooter was white. Washington alleged that her child's murder was a hate crime, so did Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee. A composite sketch of the alleged shooter resembling Cantrell was released.
Shaun King actually launched his own sloppy and onerous investigation into the matter, offering a $100,000 reward. Harris Co. Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, a notable progressive Democrat politician, assisted with the investigation.
King posted Cantrell’s mugshot on Twitter in January 2019, asking his followers for more information on Cantrell, describing him as “a racist, violent asshole.”
King wrote:
“He was arrested in Houston hours after Jazmine was murdered on another violent crime spree. We’ve had 20 people call or email us and say he is a racist, violent asshole and always has been. Just tell me everything you know.”
Sheriff Gonzalez passed around the composite sketch of Barnes’s alleged killer. He posted multiple retweets of the composite that included the hashtag “Justice4Jazmine.”
But King was wrong about the identity of Barnes’s killers. He was also wrong about the suspect's race. On January 6th Eric Black and Larry Woodruffe were both arrested. They also happen to be black.
King has since deleted his post accusing Cantrell of murder. There is also evidence that he and Sheriff Gonzalez had received a tip that Eric Black was involved a day before King tweeted out Cantrell’s mugshot. After Black’s arrest, King wrote in an Instagram post that he received a tip Jan. 3 that Black was somehow involved in the Jazmine Barnes shooting. According to family members, Robert Cantrell and and those close to him received death threats after King’s allegation.
The false allegation against Cantrell is not the first that Shaun King has made. He accused a Texas state trooper by name in May 2018, of raping Sherita Dixon-Cole, a black woman, during a traffic stop. Video of the incident was released days later showing that the trooper did not assault Dixon-Cole.
SEATTLE, WA - MARCH 08: Shaun King, a Black Lives Matter leader and writer for the New York Daily News, speaks a rally at Westlake Center on March 8, 2017 in Seattle, Washington. The rally was co-hosted by Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant and Socialist Students USA in honor of International Women's Day, to stand up for reproductive rights and economic equality for women. (Photo by Karen Ducey/Getty Images)