Kianda

This is my friend/coworker who died/was killed. We don't know why - as you can see, there are a lot of mysteries here. It horrifies me that, because he is a black man in the U.S., we may never find out. (meaning, if he was a white woman, the media would be all over this --- need evidence: runaway bride, Natallee Holloway (missing in Aruba)...). If you have any ideas to help continue to get this investigation to progress and be in the news, I would love to hear it.

I love and appreciate you.
krissy

Man's Electrocution Baffles Acquaintances
Doctoral Candidate Dies Atop D.C. Transformer

By Paul Schwartzman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 16, 2005; B05

D.C. police yesterday identified a popular American University graduate student as the man who was electrocuted after touching high-voltage machinery at a downtown Pepco substation.

Detectives are seeking to determine what drove Kianda Bell, 31, to end up atop a 10-foot-tall transformer early Wednesday, apparently after scaling two security fences. Signs at the site warn of the electrical hazards.

Rachel Lerebours, 27, Bell's fiancee, said she knew of no reason for him to have gone to the substation, in the 1600 block of L Street NW. After last seeing him Tuesday morning, Lerebours said she knew that Bell planned to go out with friends that night. She said she became worried when he failed to turn up at their Rockville apartment by midnight.

"I didn't know where he was, and I tried to call his cell phone many times, but he never answered," she said. She learned of his fate, she said, when a police officer answered the cell phone.

Bell worked Tuesday at his research job at the Defense Manpower Data Center, a part of the Defense Department, where he had been employed since June, according to a supervisor who spoke on the condition of anonymity because agency policy bars officials from talking to the news media without permission.

The supervisor described Bell as "pleasant, very happy and very well-mannered. He was extremely professional and friendly, and we thought the world of him.

"We are totally at a loss to explain this. It was bizarre and totally unexpected," the supervisor said.

Firefighters found Bell after they received a call about 2:15 a.m. reporting a fire on the side of the office building, adjoining a construction pit, in which the substation is located. Bell was pronounced dead at the scene. Officials said he was subjected to 19,600 volts.

Associates described Bell, an Oakland, Calif., native, as tall, handsome and scholarly, with a talent for tennis, skiing and basketball. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of California at Davis before entering American University.

Lerebours, a Georgetown University graduate student, said she and Bell had become engaged after having started dating a year ago. He had been working on his doctoral thesis in sociology at American University, where he served as an adjunct professor teaching introductory sociology.

"Everything was great, as far as I'm concerned," she said.

Russell Stone, chairman of the university's sociology department, described Bell as a "wonderful student and an outstanding teacher" and said students are "shocked and heartbroken by the news."

"We are completely baffled by the circumstances," he said.

Bette Dickerson, a sociology professor who was Bell's adviser, said his dissertation focused on victims of gun violence in poor urban areas who suffer spinal chord injuries.

In particular, Dickerson said, Bell was studying the experiences of women who care for such victims. She met with him last week, she said, "and he was as he always has been: on task."

"Undergraduate students loved him," she said. "This is why it's all left people speechless."

© 2005 The Washington Post Company

Here is Channel 9's coverage: http://www.wusa9.com/news/news_article.aspx?ref=Vodcast&storyid=%20%20%20%20%2045183