Death of South Carolina Man Shot and Dragged for 10 Miles Investigated as Hate Crime

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South Carolina authorities are investigating the death of a black man who was shot to death and whose body they say may then have been dragged for several miles by a white man as a hate crime.

The FBI is assisting in the investigation into the death of 30-year-old Anthony Hill (pictured left), whose body was found at 4:30 a.m. on the side of a highway.

Sheriff's deputies say they followed a trail of blood to the home of Gregory Collins, 19 (pictured below). Agents blasted tear gas into Collins' home after he engaged in a standoff for several hours.

The two men, neither of whom had serious criminal records, were co-workers at a chicken processing plant in Newberry County.

"We don't want to attribute something to Collins that isn't necessarily true," State Law Enforcement Division Director Reggie Lloyd said. "But out of precaution, given the circumstances, we are investigating the racial angle."

According to authorities, the two men were at Collins' house early Wednesday morning, when Hill was shot in the head.

Collins then took a nylon rope and attached it to Hill's body and the back of his truck. He dragged the body for several miles until the rope snapped (see bloodied road below).


I'm not sure what the nature of the men's relationship was, but isn't it bad enough to shoot someone in the head? There must have been a lot of hate in the suspect's heart to go through the process of mutilating his alleged victim.

The dragging of Hill's body sheds light on how much the death and destruction perpetrated upon African Americans in this country hundreds of years ago still resides in this country's DNA.

The death of James Byrd who was murdered in Jasper, Texas, in 1998 by three white supremacists who chained his feet to a truck and dragged him until he was decapitated, comes to mind.

More recently, we've heard about former Chicago cop Jon Burge, who is on trial for lying about the alleged tortured of more than 100 black men by committing acts such as mock lynchings and shocking their genitals.

These violent deaths all bear the legacy of the thousands of lynchings that were performed on black men during and after slavery.

Authorities should prosecute this case to the fullest extent of the law to show that hate crimes such as this will not be tolerated.


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