OMG : Friend of eye witness in Mike Brown shooting found shot to death after being set on fire in Ferguson

     Just up the road from the memorial of stuffed animals and candles that has become a place of pilgrimage and protest over the shooting death of Michael Brown, there is an empty parking lot where another young black man was killed last week on the night this city erupted in rage.

     There are no rallies or news cameras there, no signs or ribbons to mark the spot where, the police say, Deandre Joshua, 20, was shot once in the head and then set on fire inside his car. He was the only person killed during the fires, looting and riots that shook the city after a grand jury declined to indict a white police officer in Mr. Brown’s killing. But in the days since, Mr. Joshua’s death has largely become a footnote to Ferguson’s story — an open homicide case and a bitter mystery for his family.

“The unknown is what scares me,” his mother, Maria, 39, said in an interview at her home in nearby University City, where her son and his identical twin brother, Dont’A, shared the basement. “I don’t know what happened to him.”

     His mother and brother described Mr. Joshua as a young man who liked to joke, worked nights stocking shelves at Walmart and dreamed of becoming a rapper. He graduated from Jennings Senior High School in 2012, according to Tiffany Anderson, the district superintendent.He lived with his mother, brother and two younger sisters, and was still trying to figure out his way in the world, his family said. He considered joining the Army or applying to community college, but let both options slide.His family said Mr. Joshua had never joined the marches and protests over Mr. Brown’s shooting, even though, in a twist of fate, the twin brothers were childhood friends with a crucial figure in the case, the witness who was walking with Mr. Brown when he was killed.

     Despite circulating reports from people suggesting that DeAndre was also a grand jury witness in the Mike Brown shooting case, DeAndre’s mother says he never testified before the grand jury [DeAndre’s] death became fodder for online speculation, caught in the fervor over the unrest in Ferguson. People sifting through thousands of pages of redacted grand jury testimony from the Brown case posited that Mr. Joshua was one of the unnamed witnesses.But Mr. Joshua’s family said he had known nothing about Mr. Brown’s death and never testified before the grand jury.As it waits for answers, his family has started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to cover his funeral and burial. The family scans the online speculation about him, but tries to look beyond it. And Ms. Joshua said she found herself driving past that ordinary-looking parking lot.“I don’t know why I go there — I just ride by,” she said. “That was the last place he was at.”

Via. 

NY Times