Man shot in chest drives to Mississippi hospital. Friends demand answers after death
A 25-year-old man drove himself to a hospital after suffering several gunshot wounds and later died, according to Mississippi police. Now many are demanding answers as police search for clues in what led up to his death.
Mel Robert Groves, who friends said was transgender, collapsed Monday shortly after arriving at Merit Health Central in Jackson, the Clarion Ledger reported, citing police. Groves was then moved to the University of Mississippi Medical Center, where he died from his injuries.
Authorities haven’t publicly revealed a motive or suspect in his death, according to WLBT, and are unsure of where the shooting took place.
McClatchy News reached out to the Jackson Police Department on Thursday and is awaiting a response.
Friends remember Groves as someone who “was not afraid to be themselves.” The Mississippi man, who had a love for all things agriculture and animals, was a plant soil scientist at Alcorn State University, according to the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest pro-LGBTQ advocacy group.
Groves was also a member of The Knights & Orchids Society (TKO), a startup dedicated to building “the power of the TLGB (transgender, lesbian, gay and bisexual) community for African-Americans throughout rural areas in Alabama and across the south to obtain our dream of justice and equality,” according to its website. He also served as a youth ambassador and farmer in the group’s gardening program.
“The motive is unknown, but we know the violence that happens to trans people in our communities,” TKO leadership wrote in a statement posted on Facebook. “Mel had even shared that he feared for his life because he was trans in Jackson.”
‘He would want me to go on’
The Hinds County coroner’s office said Groves suffered multiple gunshot wounds to his upper body, WAPT reported. Hilliard Rashad Jones, a childhood friend of Groves’, recalled missing a call from him early Monday morning and now fears his friend was seeking help.
“I’m just trying to play the timelines in my head,” Jones told WAPT. “When I got the call, it was 4 a.m. What was he doing? Was he calling for help? Maybe he was calling to say goodbye. All those things are going through my head. I know he would want me to go on.”
Quentin Bell, TKO’s executive director, met Groves in 2019 when they attended college in Alabama and said the two had experienced a lot together, including food insecurity and homelessness. Bell celebrated Groves’ activism within the LGBTQ community and his desire to be a role model for other trans individuals.
Lauding Groves’ love for agriculture, Bell called him “the George Washington Carver of our time — but with sweet potatoes. It was his passion.”
“To get a call in the middle of the night that somebody had murdered him and that (police) had no suspects, no leads ... it hurts,” Bell told McClatchy News in an interview. “This should’ve been (Mel’s) season.”
Violence against the trans community
The Human Rights Campaign reports that at least 39 transgender or gender non-conforming individuals have been shot or killed so far in 2021. These incidents often go unreported, the organization notes, and overwhelmingly involve Black and Latina trans women.
Members of the LGBTQ community have also criticized police and news organizations for misgendering Groves in the wake of his death and publishing his “dead name,” or the name he was given at birth.
“Mel kept moving ... and fighting through adversity,” Bell said. “And it’s not fair because his blessing was not waiting for him on the other side.”
Police are still investigating the incident.
This story was originally published October 14, 2021 at 12:52 PM.