Authorities released video that appears to show Javion Magee, a black man found dead last week in North Carolina under a tree with a rope around his neck, buying rope from a Walmart a day before his body was discovered.
The video was taken on September 10 and showed Magee, a 21-year-old truck driver from Illinois, walking up to a self-checkout station with a bundle rope in his hand, police said.
The young man was found dead the next day, sitting down near the base of a tree with rope wrapped around his neck and the other end attached to the tree, CBS 17 reported.
Police previously insisted Magee wasnt lynched as the case gained increasing attention last week.
The Vance County Sheriffs Office released footage showing Javion Magee buying a bundle of blue rope in a Walmart located in Henderson, North Carolina
Magee is seen here pulling out a card to pay for the rope
Magee tosses the rope in the air as he walks out of the store. He would be found dead the next day about six miles away from the Walmart
The new video shows Magee paying for the blue rope with a card before walking out of the store.
Vance County Sheriff Curtis Brame told ABC 11 that his office believes the rope he bought was used in his death, but Magees family is still not satisfied with the investigation.
Theres been information put out there that theres a lynching, there is not a lynching, Brame said earlier.
The young man was not dangling from a tree. He was not swinging from a tree. The rope was wrapped around his neck. It was not a noose. There was not a knot in the rope, so therefore, it was not a lynching here in Vance County.
DailyMail.com has contacted the sheriffs office multiple times for more information about the circumstances of Magees death.
No cause of death had been determined as of Monday.
A spokeswoman for the Magees, Candice Matthews, told DailyMail.com that the family still has questions.
Matthews said Magee dropped off a load from his truck to a Walmart distribution center before buying the rope, adding that the rope he bought could have had another purpose.
The family still believes that this video doesnt prove nothing because as a truck driver, this is part of the trucking equipment thats used for tying down loads, Matthews said. But the question still remains, is this the same rope that he was hung from?
The family also has questions about the timeline.
The video shows Magee buying the rope during the day on September 10. His body was discovered on September 11 around six miles away from the Walmart near a tractor repair business, CBS 17 reported.
Candice Matthews, left, has become the spokesperson for the Magee family. Vance County Sheriff Curtis Brame, right, has sought to quiet rumors that Magee was lynched
The family still feels that the sheriffs department is not being transparent and not being clear. They feel that its foul play that has happened to their loved one, and they want answers. They want transparency. They want accountability, and they want justice, Matthews said.
Magees family has retained the counsel of national civil rights attorneys Harry Daniels and Lee Merritt.
As of today, the authorities havent shown us anything proving that this young man with no history of mental illness took his life, Daniels said in a statement.
Magees family and their lawyers insist that he didnt have any kind of mental illness
A banner is hung near the University of Illinois in Chicago on September 14, days after his death
This case gained attention on social media after one of Magees cousins posted a video on TikTok slamming the sheriffs office for not being transparent and not allowing his mom to identify the body because of Covid-19.
The sheriffs office told DailyMail.com that Magees mother was never denied the opportunity to identify her sons body.
The cousins original video on the subject has gotten nearly 5 million views on TikTok. In a subsequent video, she doubled down on her belief that Magee didnt die by his own hand.
We didnt feel that [the case] was getting a thorough investigation, and [we were] given the run-around, she said.
I didnt say the police did anything, I didnt say any specific person did anything, but somebody did something. We dont believe that he did this to himself. So, we have every right to feel how we feel as a family.