A Ferguson protester captured in a Pulitzer Prize-winning photo was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound late Thursday. The famous image showed him throwing a tear gas canister during the protest.
Edward Crawford was found in a car in St. Louis’s Hyde Park neighborhood with two women on Friday. His father confirmed his identity to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
The death was reported as a suicide Thursday at 11:46 p.m. but is pending autopsy results before an official determination is made, the Post-Dispatch reported. Crawford lived in University City, Missouri, at the time of his death.
Crawford’s father said he believed the death was accidental and that his son did not appear to have been suicidal prior to the shooting.
“He was wonderful, great, always in a good mood,” his father told the Post-Dispatch. “He just got a new apartment and was training for a new job.”
The women with Crawford told police he had been talking about how upset he was over “personal matters” before reaching for the gun and shooting himself. Crawford, 27, had four children whom his father said he “loved to death,” the Post-Dispatch reported.
The iconic photo in which Crawford was featured showed him throwing a burning tear gas canister during the Ferguson protests following the police shooting death of unarmed teen Michael Brown. Although many news outlets reported Crawford was throwing the canister back at police, he said he was throwing it away from children who were in the area at the time, according to Mediaite.
Twitter was full of condolences and accolades for Crawford, although some remained upset at his actions during the protest and his visibility after the fact.
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