Maryland Medical Examiner Rules Upper Marlboro Hanging a Suicide

Maryland's chief medical examiner ruled on Monday that a Black man found hanging from a tree in Upper Marlboro died by suicide by hanging, with no other signs of trauma, Prince George's County officials said. The man's body was discovered around 7:55 a.m. Sunday, September 20, in the 9300 block of DArcy Road in unincorporated Upper Marlboro, hanging high in a tree in front of an industrial business. Police and fire crews responded, pronounced him dead at the scene and opened a death investigation, interviewing witnesses and people who knew him. His identity has not been publicly released. The Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner delivered its ruling on Monday as Prince George's County Executive Aisha Braveboy held a news conference with county council members and police officials. Braveboy urged residents to reject online speculation that the death was a lynching. "Don't ask for clickbait and use this tragedy to get followers or to get likes, because this is a tragedy," Braveboy said. "A person is dead. He's dead, and he took his own life." She added that officials would tell the truth and that she would not entertain theory, innuendoes and untruths.