A prominent activist involved in protests in Ferguson, Missouri, following the police killing of Michael Brown Jr. was found dead in a torched car on Sept. 6, according to local reports.
Darren Seals’s body was found shot to death inside the vehicle nearly 12 miles away from his home on Diamond Drive in Riverview in St. Louis County around 1:50 a.m., the St. Louis County Police Department said in a statement. The 29-year-old’s body was only discovered after the flames were extinguished.
The St. Louis County Police Department’s Bureau of Crimes Against Persons and Bomb and Arson Unit are handling the homicide investigation.
Local police identified Seals as Daren Seals, but The St. Louis Post-Dispatch listed the spelling of his given name as Darren.
Seals gained recognition for organizing protest efforts after Brown, an unarmed teenager, was shot and killed by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in 2014. He was also an outspoken critic of the Black Lives Matter movement, accusing the group’s leaders of hijacking Ferguson activism.
