MarShawn M. McCarrel II has passed away at the age of 23 after fatally shooting himself on Monday evening, the New York Daily News reports. The devoted Black Lives Matter activist reportedly committed suicide on the steps of the Ohio Statehouse and was pronounced dead at the scene. "My demons won today," McCarrel wrote on Facebook earlier that day, according to the Columbus Dispatch. "I'm sorry."
Earlier this month, McCarrel was honored at the NAACP Image Awards for his remarkable history of activism. "It was humbling," McCarrel told 614 Columbus in 2014 of the three months he spent homeless after graduating high school. "I realized an important thing: I don’t need anything to be happy. I mean, it changed everything; I had to be broken to see what genuine happiness is."
McCarrel was instrumental in the organization of protests after Michael Brown, an unarmed black man, was shot and killed by police in 2014. The influential activist also founded a youth mentorship organization, Pursuing Our Dreams, which included an initiative aimed at helping Ohio's homeless citizens.
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Rest in power, MarShawn McCarrel.
