Nebraska bar owner charged in Black man's death takes own life - lawyer
Lawyers for Jacob Gardner, 38, had expected him to return to Omaha after a grand jury returned a four-count indictment on Sept. 15.
"He was really shook up, because the grand jury indictment was a shock to him, it was a shock to us and it was a shock to many people,” attorney Stu Dornan told reporters.
Police in Hillsboro, Oregon, a suburb just west of Portland, confirmed in a statement that Gardner's body was found on Sunday outside a medical clinic. His death was not immediately classify as suicide.
Gardner's lawyers said he fled to Northern California and later Oregon on their advice due to death threats on social media, after Douglas County District Attorney Don Kleine declined to charge him in the death of 22-year-old James Scurlock.
Grainy video taken outside Gardner's bar shows two men in an altercation during sometimes violent protests on the night of May 30 that swept through Omaha and other U.S. cities, following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
An investigation into Scurlock's death led to a grand jury charging Gardner with manslaughter, use of a deadly weapon, attempted assault and terroristic threats.
