Louisiana Deputy Commits Suicide Because Of His Perceived Institutional Racism Within Policing, Leaves Videos Leading Up To Death

Louisiana sheriff’s deputy Clyde Kerr III took his own life on Monday outside of his workplace at the Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office.

According to reports, Kerr left a series of videos on social media in which he talked directly to the camera about several topics, including police brutality against Blacks, the mental health needs of officers, as well as issues like existing division in American society and how children are affected by exposure to violence and other traumatizing influences.

“You have no idea how hard it is to put a uniform on in this day and age with everything that’s going on,” he said in one video.

“My entire life has been in the service of other people,” said Kerr. “Y’all entrust me to safeguard your little ones, your small ones, the thing that’s most precious to you, and I did that well. I passed security clearance in the military … but that has allowed me to see the inner workings of things.”

He referenced specific deaths at law enforcers’ hands: Botham Jean, killed by off-duty officer Amber Geiger in his Dallas apartment in 2018, plus George Floyd in Minneapolis, Breonna Taylor in Louisville and Trayford Pellerin, who was killed by Lafayette Police Department officers, all in the spring and summer of 2020.

Kerr was a military veteran and a father who, in one of his videos, said that he struggled explaining Floyd’s death to his son.