Update (January 10, 2018): The Black man found dead in the West Hollywood home of wealthy Democratic donor Ed Buck on Monday has been identified as 55-year-old Timothy Dean.
According to KTLA, Dean worked at a Los Angeles Saks Fifth Avenue. Neighbors described him as gregarious; his roommate of three years, Ottavio Taddei, said he was unfailingly friendly and always sharply dressed.
#BREAKING 55 y/o Timothy Dean of West Hollywood and a Saks Fifth Avenue employee, has been identified as the man who died in Ed Buck's apartment on Monday. #RIPTimothyDean
pic.twitter.com/028L3OVj6g— Jasmyne Cannick (@Jasmyne) January 10, 2019
Taddei said he was a little concerned when Dean didn't come home and was shocked when he heard exactly how his roommate had died.
"He never did drugs," Taddei said. "I've never seen him on drugs, ever."
Buck's lawyer, however, claims Dean arrived at the donor's home having already "taken some substances."
A neighbor who said she saw Dean enter Buck's home didn't comment on whether he seemed high but did say the 55-year-old wasn't in the house long before dying. She reported Dean went to the house around 12:15 a.m. on Monday and was carried out by EMTs only 45 minutes later.
An investigation into Dean's death is underway, and the Sheriff's Department has said it plans to do a second review of the death of Gemmel Moore, a young Black man who died of a drug overdose at Buck's home in 2017.
A third Black man, 28-year-old Jermaine Gagnon, told the Daily Mail he dated Buck briefly. Gagnon alleged during his interview with the Mail that Buck injected him with crystal meth after the two had smoked meth together.
Buck has not responded to Gagnon's claim, but ABC 7 reports elected officials who have benefited from the donor's patronage have begun to distance themselves from him.
U.S. Representative Ted Lieu (D-CA) said he plans to donate the $18,500 Buck contributed to his campaign to civil rights charities.
Original: Another Black man has been found dead at the home of wealthy Democratic donor Ed Buck.
Authorities were on the scene to investigate at around 3:35 a.m. on Monday, according to WeHoville.
The deceased man’s name has not been released.
This incident marks the second time a Black gay man has died in Buck’s home. Gemmel Moore died of a suspected overdose in July 2017, as Blavity previously reported. Moore’s friends and family accused Buck of drugging young Black gay men for his sexual amusement.
“[Buck] would have my son to go out to … Santa Monica Boulevard looking for young gay Black guys so he could inject them with drugs, see their reaction and how [they] would react and take pictures of them,” Moore’s mother, LaTisha Nixon, said of Buck in 2017. She said she got that information from one of Moore’s associates.
John Bice, another friend, validated Nixon’s story and described how Buck preyed on vulnerable people.
"Basically this guy would find young struggling Black guys around town, pick them up and say he was going to help them out — make sure they had clothes and food. … He wanted to see them get high, first with weed. Then one day, the guy wanted him to shoot up," Bice said.
The Advocate reports Buck was never charged for the 26-year-old’s death because the evidence was “insufficient to prove [guilt] beyond a reasonable doubt,” according to the Los Angeles District Attorney's office.
Buck is known for donating to major Democratic candidates including Hillary Clinton and West Hollywood City Council members John D’Amico and Lindsey Horvath. He has never publicly commented on Moore, but his lawyer called the young man's death “accidental” and “unfortunate.”
Communications strategist Jasmyne Cannick announced plans for a rally at Buck’s home on Monday evening at 7 p.m. on Twitter.
There will be a call to action at 7P today in front of Ed Bucks home at 1234 Laurel Avenue in West Hollywood re the death/murder of ANOTHER Black man at Ed Bucks.
DEMANDS#ArrestEdBuck#ProsecuteEdBuck#ConvictEdBuck#Justice4Gemmel and all of Ed Buck’s victims.
— Jasmyne Cannick (@Jasmyne) January 7, 2019
Cannick mentioned Moore in an op-ed about her campaign to be a delegate for California’s Democratic Party. She believes the party is in the midst of a morality crisis.
“That’s not the kind of political party I want to belong to. One that sees the lives of Black people as being expendable. As Black Democrats, that is not the type of return we expect on our years of investing in the Democratic Party with our votes,” she wrote. “If Gemmel Moore had been a white male or female — I seriously doubt the Party leadership would have been able to sweep it under the rug the way they so carelessly and deliberately did.”
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