Trey Reed: Family Demands Answers In Black Student’s Hanging

Perhaps we’ve simply seen this story far too many times lately…

A Black man is mysteriously found hanging from a tree, and the authorities seem all too eager to call it a suicide, leaving the victim’s family with more questions than answers and plenty of doubt that their loved one’s case is being handled correctly.

Early Monday morning, the body of 21-year-old student Demartravion “Trey” Reed, a student at Mississippi’s Delta State University, was discovered hanging from a tree on campus. Before long, a press conference was held, during which University Police Chief Michael L. Peeler and Delta State President Dan Ennis both stressed that “there is no evidence of foul play” and “no evidence of a threat to campus.” On Tuesday, Reed’s family and their attorneys, including famed civil rights attorney Ben Crump, held a press conference of their own to demand full transparency from the authorities handling Reed’s investigation.

“The family does not know exactly what happened on September the 15th of 2025,” attorney Vanessa Jones said. “We are seeking answers.”

“The family of Trey Reed has not received a phone call from the president of Delta State University,” Jones emphasized.

Conversely, WAPT 16 reported that the school’s president suggested via Facebook that administrators have been in contact with the family since Reed’s death and will “continue” to be.

“One of our students is gone and we will never forget that,” Ennis wrote. “We will continue to contact and meet with Trey’s family. We give them our love and support, and we know that we can never fully heal this wound.”

Regardless of whether Delta State leaders have been in communication with the family or not, the family is now calling for an independent investigation and autopsy, and, according to a press release, Crump will be leading the charge, working with “a number of civil rights organizations to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation.”

Crump said in a statement, “Trey Reed was a young man full of promise and warmth, deeply loved and respected by all who knew him. His family and the campus community deserve a full, independent investigation to uncover the truth about what happened. We cannot accept vague conclusions when so many questions remain. I stand with this family, and I will lead a team of civil rights leaders and organizations in pursuing transparency and answers for Trey’s family.”

“We will seek answers independently from Delta State University and from the coroner’s office, and if need be, independent from the state coroner’s office, because we need answers as to what happened to Trey Reed,” Jones said Tuesday.

Jones also criticized authorities for what she called “a possible constitutional violation of releasing Trey’s name to the media immediately” after his body was found. She also noted that “a lot of the questions we have…should be quite easy to answer, because if this young man was on the campus of Delta State University with all of these cameras…there should be surveillance of all of his actions.”

“And that’s what we want,” she continued. “Bring the surveillance, bring the cameras so that we’ll know exactly what happened to Trey Reed.”

Reed’s story has gained attention across social media, where people, especially Black people, are also not buying the explanation that Reed killed himself.

Again, we’ve seen and heard this story so many times in the last few years alone.

What’s going on?

SEE ALSO:

Black Man Found Hanging At Mississippi’s Delta State University

Black Man Found Hanging From A Tree In New York, Police Call It Suicide

Lawyers Compare Javion Magee Hanging To Emmett Till

Dennoriss Richardson’s Wife Says ‘He Didn’t Kill Himself’

Family Demands Answers In Hanging Of Dennoriss Richardson

Was This Georgia Black Man Lynched?