Was his death a hate crime?

Did you know that on September 16th a 24 year old black man was dragged to his death after being run over by a pickup truck driven by 2 young white men near Paris, TX? I bet you don't recall hearing about Brandon McClelland's death anywhere. I know I didn't ... until today thanks to bitfreak at dkos.

As it turns out, there was an item on it in the Dallas Morning News on September 30th and no other national coverage other than this story by the Chicago Tribune on October 6th. Kudos to the Trib and their reporter, Howard Witt, for a thorough report. It's not possible yet, evidently, to determine whether or not this murder was a hate-crime according to the Trib report. What does add to the uncertainty is the history of the Texas area which is recounted in the article.

The local paper, The Paris News, published this report on Oct. 13th about the arrest of one of the perpetrators in Kansas and his return to Texas.

On the surface it does sound like there may be a resemblance to the lynching death of James Byrd in Jasper, TX in 1998. This citizen journalist, Jesse Muhammad, doesn't seem to think there's any question that it was a hate crime. Certainly the details about the family finding blood and bits of bone by the side of the road do not inspire confidence in the law enforcement management of the case and in its ability to find justice for the victim.

Just checked Google news and an hour ago - while I was writing this post - the AP finally put out a story about it.