I don’t know f you remember the story of Gemmel Moore, but it bears repeating.
On July 27, 2017, African-American sex worker Gemmel Moore died of a drug overdose at the West Hollywood apartment of high rolling Democratic donor Edward Buck. His mother, LaTisha Nixon, made some deeply disturbing allegations about Buck to The WeHo Times.
LaTisha Nixon says she learned that her son, who was unemployed, had recently been doing sex work. She told the WeHo Times that her son’s friend was also engaged in similar activity—and that they had a client in common.
“He told me that Ed Buck was one of my son’s clients and that Ed Buck was one of his clients as well,” Nixon said. “[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.”
Nixon says a detective from the West Hollywood Station of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department who called her following her son’s death said no drugs or paraphernalia were found at Buck’s home.
Nevertheless, Nixon is steadfast in her accusations about the activist’s alleged fetish for getting young African American men high.
“[He] would supply heroin, meth and other drugs to him to smoke or use with a needle,” Nixon alleges. “Buck would pleasure himself at the sight of my son using drugs…”
She asserted that Gemmel Moore’s friends told her, “the bigger the cloud of smoke,” the bigger the reward from Buck, who “would excitedly encourage [Gemmel] to increase his dosage by saying, ‘more, more, and I’ll give you $500 more.’”
Moore wrote in his journal, which was reviewed by the LA Times after his death, that Buck had introduced him to crystal meth.
“I’ve become addicted to drugs and the worst one at that,” Moore reportedly wrote in the diary. “Ed Buck is the one to thank, he gave me my first injection of chrystal meth.”
He continued: “I just hope the end result isn’t death…. If it didn’t hurt so bad I’d kill myself but I’ll let Ed Buck do it for now.”
Moore’s death was ruled accidental.
Now, another man was found dead early Monday morning at Buck’s apartment.
via CBS2:
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the apartment in the 1200 block of Laurel Avenue just after 1 a.m. where they found the victim not breathing. Paramedics conducted CPR on the victim, but he died at the scene. His name was not released.
Buck, who is in his 60s, was home at the time.
The cause of death remains unknown. The L.A. County coroner’s office is conducting an autopsy. L.A. County Sheriff’s Homicide detectives are also investigating.
Buck’s attorney Seymour Amster told CBS2 the man who died was one of the politician’s longtime friends and that “the substance was ingested at some place other than the apartment.” The attorney claimed Buck was sober and did not provide any drugs to the man.
The Los Angeles LGBT Center released a statement calling upon L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva to “fully investigate this tragedy and aggressively seek justice wherever the investigation might lead.”
“The reports we have heard provide more questions than answers,” the statement read. “The fact is two black men have died at Mr. Buck’s home in less than two years.”
Activists held a vigil and rally outside Buck’s apartment Monday night demanding that he be charged in the case.
“If this was a black man, and there were two white bodies found in his apartment, there is no way he would not be in the jail right now, lawyering up,” victims’ rights advocate Tyson-Lord Gray said.
At one point during the protest, the crowd turned on Buck’s neighbors, accusing them of not doing enough to stop the deaths.
“I’m not OK with people dying in his house, and people coming over here and dying,” one protester said. “It doesn’t matter what color skin they have.”
More on this story as it develops.
JUST IN: A man was found dead Monday morning at the same West Hollywood apartment of prominent Democratic Party donor Edward Buck where another man died of an overdose about 18 months ago. Buck was present for both deaths, but has since not been charged. https://t.co/Lbv9ulXUFm
— CBS Los Angeles (@CBSLA) January 7, 2019