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Candidate beaten, burned: The family of a Mississippi mayoral candidate, who was killed last week, said he was burned and beaten.
A screenshot of Google Maps shows the location of Clarksdale, Mississippi. (Screenshot by The Epoch Times)
The family of the slain mayoral candidate for a Mississippi town said that he was dragged and set on fire last week
Marco McMillian, 33, was a candidate for the town of Clarksdale in the Mississippi Delta.
“We feel this was not a random act of violence based on the condition of the body when it was found,” the McMillian family said, according to the Jackson Clarion-Ledger. “Marco, nor anyone, should have their lives end in this manner.”
Scotty Meredith, the Coahoma County coroner, said that McMillian wasn’t dragged by a vehicle, but said his body was dragged from the vehicle to where it was dumped.
“Of course, being a big man like he is, they couldn’t pick him up and take him,” Meredith told the paper. “This is blown out of proportion.”
McMillian’s godfather, Carter Womack, told The Associated Press that the family got the information about his death from the Coahoma County coroner. And a person with knowledge of the investigation, who was not named, told AP that McMillian’s body was bruised and suffered burns.
The cause of his death was not released yet, with authorities saying it could take two weeks to get the results of toxicology tests.
Last week, police charged 22-year-old Lawrence Reed with the murder of McMillian.
Reed was driving McMillian’s SUV on Feb. 26 before slamming into another car on U.S. Highway 49. McMillian, however, was not in the car and his body was found the following day.
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