Hopkinton Teen’s Death Draws Protesters To Middlesex DA's Office

LOWELL, MA — Activists plan to deliver 16,000 signatures to Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan’s office Monday calling for the DA to hand the investigation into the death of a 16-year-old Hopkinton teen to state Attorney General Maura Healey.

Violence in Boston founder Monica Cannon-Grant showed off the 56-page document with signatures from people across the country at a protest outside the Middlesex District Attorney's Lowell office Friday afternoon.

"What we can't do is be silent," Cannon-Grant said. She asked the crowd to call on Gov. Charlie Baker and Healey to take the investigation out of Ryan's hands.

Activists called for more transparency around the Miller death investigation. The girl was found with a belt around her neck and tied to a tree in the woods near her Hopkinton home last month.

The protest, located in the parking lot at the corner of Church and Warren streets, began with a couple dozen people holding signs like "We demand justice for Mikayla Miller!" and "white silence is violence," as about six police officers stood watching. Around the corner, about a dozen motorcycle officers parked their bikes and took off their helmets.

By 4 p.m. the crowd had grown to nearly 200 people as Cannon-Grant gave out a number to call the governor, imploring attendees to contact Baker.

A state medical examiner this week ruled Mikayla Miller's death a suicide, and the Middlesex District Attorney's office said it is continuing to investigate the matter. Miller's ex-girlfriend warned a guidance counselor about Miller's mental state before her death, according to an attorney representing the ex-girlfriend's family.

"This was not a suicide," Cannon-Grant said.

Cannon-Grant and the family said Miller, who was Black and was jumped by four teenagers who were mainly white the night before she was found dead, would not have killed herself.

She said the way Miller was found — with a knotted belt around her neck tied to a small tree and standing — didn't add up to suicide.

Cannon-Grant said the DA's office hasn't been forthcoming with information to the family, has been disrespectful and contradictory.

Activists have called for an independent investigation and for the Middlesex DA to be removed from the case. Violence in Boston hosted a large rally in Hopkinton on May 6 that saw more than double the number of people as the Lowell rally. Cannon-Grant said she funded an independent autopsy that has been completed and turned over to the family. Those results have not been made public yet.

"We're gonna keep applying pressure," said Cannon-Grant.

There was some tension between a couple dozen protesters with police near the end of the rally. At one point a girl standing with a bicycle blocked a driveway while police were trying to leave, but she eventually moved and everyone dispersed by 6 p.m.

Watch the Friday rally and here:

A spokesperson for the Middlesex District Attorney's office said no one was scheduled to work in the satellite office Friday.