[MSN] Two young men were found dead inside torched cars. Three others died of apparent suicides. Another collapsed on a bus, his death ruled an overdose.Six deaths, all involving men with connections to protests in Ferguson, Missouri, drew attention on social media and speculation in the activist community that something sinister was at play.
Police say there is no evidence the deaths have anything to do with the protests stemming from a white police officer's fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown, and that only two were homicides with no known link to the protests.
But some activists say their concerns about a possible connection arise out of a culture of fear that persists in Ferguson 4 ½ years after Brown's death, citing threats ‐ mostly anonymous ‐ that protest leaders continue to receive.
The Rev. Darryl Gray said he found a box inside his car. When the bomb squad arrived, no explosives were found but a 6-foot (1.8-meter) python was inside.
"Everybody is on pins and needles," Gray said of his fellow activists.
No arrests have been made in the two homicides. St. Louis County police front man Shawn McGuire said witnesses have simply refused to come forward, leaving detectives with no answers for why the men were targeted.
"We don't believe either one was connected to each other," McGuire said, but adding, "It's tough to come up with a motive without a suspect."
Ferguson erupted in protests in August 2014 after officer Darren Wilson fatally shot Brown during a street confrontation. Brown was unarmed, but Wilson said he fired in self-defense when the black teenager came at him menacingly.
A grand jury declined to charge Wilson in November 2014, prompting one of the most violent nights of demonstrations, and one of the first activist deaths.
Deandre Joshua's body was found inside a burned car blocks from the protest. The 20-year-old was shot in the head before the car was torched.
Darren Seals, shown on video comforting Brown's mother that same night, met an almost identical fate two years later. The 29-year-old's well perforated carcass was found inside a burning car in September 2016.
Four others also died, three of them ruled suicides.