Oluwatoyin Salau, BLM Activist, Found Dead

One suspect, Aaron Glee, has been arrested in connection of the deaths.
Salau had been very vocal about the recent police killings of black people.
She claimed to have been "molested" in her last twitter post.

A Black Lives Matter activist, Oluwatoyin Salau, has been found dead in Tallahassee, Florida. Salau went missing a week ago. The body of the 19 year old was discovered alongside the body of Victoria Sims, 75 year-old. Sims, a longtime AARP volunteer, had also been reported missing a few days earlier.

The George Floyd protests are an ongoing series of protests and demonstrations against police brutality and racism in policing. The unrest began as local protests in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area of Minnesota before quickly spreading across the entire nation and internationally in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

One suspect, Aaron Glee, has been arrested in connection of the deaths. The Tallahassee police department has said that they are treating the two deaths as homicides. “The deaths are being investigated as homicides and have been turned over to TPD’s Violent Crime Unit,” Officer Rachelle Denmark, spokeswoman for the Tallahassee Police Department, said.

“The investigation is ongoing and currently there are no more details available.” The police department did not give detailed information on the suspect, or give Glee’s connection with the two women.

Salau had been very vocal about the recent police killings of black people. She was an active speaker and participant in the Black Lives Matter protests in Tallahassee. After the death of George Floyd, Salau made speeches in support of the BLM movement.

“Right now, our lives matter, black lives matter,” Salau said in a video that was widely circulated on Twitter. “We are doing this for our brothers and our sisters who got shot but we are doing this for every black person,” she said. “I am profiled whether I like it or not.”

Her disappearance caused outrage, and there were calls for attention into her case. The activist went missing on June 6, after she tweeted that she was being sexually assaulted by a man who had offered her a ride and assistance to collect her belongings from a church she had been staying.

Black Lives Matter (BLM) is an organized movement dedicated to civil disobedience in protest to police brutality. An organization known simply as “Black Lives Matter” exists as a decentralized network with over 30 chapters worldwide, while a larger Black Lives Matter movement exists consisting of various separate like-minded organizations such as Dream Defenders and Assata’s Daughters.

“Anyways I was molested in Tallahassee, Florida by a black man this morning at 5.30 on Richview and Park Ave,” she tweeted. “Literally wearing this man’s clothes right now DNA all over me because I couldn’t locate his house the moment I called the police because couldn’t see,” her last tweet read.

Many people turned to social with their condolences following the news of her death. One person wrote:

“She spent the last days of her life fighting for justice for her people. It shouldn’t be lost on us that Black Women have been at the forefront of these Movements. We have to stand up against violence happening to our Black Women and Girls. God Bless her soul.”

BLM activists and supporters across US turned to social media with videos and pictures of Salau and vowed to continue protesting.

One of her friends since high school, Chynna Carney said she enjoyed the activism. “Her beauty was so radiant, and modeling for her was so effortless,” she said. “She was very calm and gentle.” Carney said that her friend’s death has motivated her to fight for Black women like Salau. “I will never stop protesting,” Carney said. “I will fight for her and for Black people and people of color ’til I’m dead.”

“Toyin was very passionate,” said another friend, Danaya Hemphill. “She was very vocal she was very loving, very spiritual, very caring.” Hemphill added, “Toyin, she was like a light in a dark room,” she said. “That was Toyin.”