First Black mayor of Louisiana town found dead

On Dec. 30, 57-year-old Mayor-elect Gerald “Wash” Washington, the first Black mayor of Westlake, a small Louisiana town, was found shot to death. Westlake is located 200 miles west of New Orleans and is part of Calcasieu Parish, whose county seat is Lake Charles.

Gerald ‘Wasẖ Washington

The death has been ruled a “suicide” by the Calcasieu Parish coroner and the police. Washington’s family has ordered a second autopsy. His son, Geroski Washington, says that the sheriff’s office did sloppy work and wants the state police to take over the investigation.

“We were dissatisfied with the time frame of the investigation and the way it was opened and closed. We’re thinking it’s a cover-up because of the quick and fast work they did and didn’t do,” Geroski Washington said. (Associated Press)

Many people are confused, because Gerald Washington was seen as a positive, happy person, and there had been no signs of depression that could have led him to commit suicide.

To many of the Black residents of the town, which is 80 percent white and nearly 18 percent Black, it isn’t far-fetched to suspect murder.

What makes his death even more suspicious is how he spent his last day.

Washington had won the election by 69 percent and was sworn in as mayor on Dec. 19. He arrived at City Hall at noon on Dec. 30, set the alarm system for City Hall, got instructions on how to lower and raise the flag, ordered new letterhead for stationary and a button-down shirt embroidered with “Gerald Washington, Mayor” on it.

A few hours later he placed a $4 bet on a race horse.

At 10 p.m. on the same day, a motorist passing by the school administration building, which used to be Mossville High School—Washington’s alma mater—called 911 and reported a dead body.

Washington’s pearl-handled revolver was found next to him and he had a bullet wound in his chest.

People in the city of 4,500 remain shocked. Even the outgoing mayor, Dudley Dixon, who had met Washington at City Hall that same day, was shocked.

Dixon said, “He had a smile that would just light up this room,” and “He had a just dominating personality.”

For many it is difficult to comprehend that the gunshot wound was self-inflicted.

The first autopsy has found that the weapon was pressed up against Washington’s chest, which is not the area most would associate with gunshot suicides. Additionally, the death occurred in the parking lot of Washington’s alma mater. There was no note, no indication that he had tried to get his finances in order, no attempts to reach out to anyone or to say goodbye. Plus, he was due to assume the mantle of mayor.

The results of the second autopsy have yet to be released; however, the circumstances surrounding the death are troubling. No one knows what the second autopsy results will yield, but in the south, the seat of slavery and racist repression that still permeates the politics of the area, the death of Gerald Washington may reveal itself to be a political coup.