Black Lives Matter activist commits suicide on Ohio Statehouse steps

A Black Lives Matter activist fatally shot himself on the steps of the Ohio State House on Monday, according to authorities.

MarShawn M. McCarrel II, 23, of Franklin Township, Ohio, died by suicide on Monday night, according to Lt. Craig Cvetan of the Ohio Highway Patrol.

McCarrel was found at 5:58 p.m. by a security officer at the top of the West rotunda steps, Cvetan told USA TODAY Network.

A few hours before McCarrell's death, he posted a cryptic status on Facebook.

“My demons won today,” McCarrel said. “I’m sorry.”

Since his death, the post has been shared over 1,000 times.

"As part of our investigation we are looking into why it happened, but we have no indication why he did it right now," Cvetan said.

According to Cvetan, no one witnessed McCarrell pull the trigger.

While authorities maintain that the motive behind McCarrell’s suicide is unknown, others who participated in grassroots protests alongside him say it may have been to send a message.

McCarrell’s suicide on the statehouse steps “was no accident,” Molly Shack, an organizer with the Ohio Student Association, told the Columbus Dispatch.

"We've been working so hard, and yet the conditions for the people in our community and the people that he loved and cared about are still so hard,” Shack said. “ I have to imagine that that burden weighed a lot on him."

It's likely that McCarrell was suffering from a mental illness, according to Jason Hershberger, chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center.

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The Facebook message McCarrell posted before his death did not mention politics and police are still investigating what propelled McCarrell to kill himself.

"People commit suicide in public for lots of reasons, sometimes you can decipher what the message was and sometimes you can’t," Hershberger said. "Sometimes there is a hope that someone could intervene and may have nothing to do with the politics."

Follow Mary Bowerman on Twitter: @MaryBowerman