Lawyer's death to be investigated by the NAACP
The Connecticut NAACP is planning to investigate the April 2014 death of an Ethiopian American lawyer after family members questioned authorities’ conclusion that he killed himself.
Family members and the NAACP want an investigation into whether Gugsa Abraham “Abe” Dabela, 35, was murdered, the Connecticut Law Tribune (sub. req.) reports.
Dabela died from a gunshot wound to the head. He was found inside an overturned Mercedes SUV in Redding, Connecticut, about two miles from his home in the early morning hours of April 5 last year. A semi-automatic handgun was inside the car.
Dabela graduated in 2011 from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. He was an associate in Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker’s office in Stamford, Connecticut, for two years before he started his own law firm in Redding. The Connecticut Law Tribune describes Dabela as a motorcycle enthusiast “who was passionate about health care, social justice and the Second Amendment.”
Connecticut NAACP president Scot Esdaile told the Connecticut Law Tribune that the group hasn’t reached any conclusions about Dabela’s death, but America has a “long deep-rooted history of blacks being found dead at the side of the road by racist people.”
According to the Danbury News-Times, the family has several questions about the continuing investigation. They include: Why was no bullet found inside Dabela’s car? Why didn’t police interview a man Dabela spoke with before leaving the Black Cat Grille, the last place he was seen before his death? The family has also said police told them Dabela was shot in the back of the head, and that doesn’t sound like a suicide.
Redding Police Chief Doug Fuchs has said his department spent hundreds of hours investigating the case, and its work has been reviewed by the chief medical examiner and the Connecticut State Police. “The fact that race has been injected into this discussion is certainly very upsetting to me,” Fuchs told the Danbury News-Times.