Bassem Masri, Ferguson Livestreamer, Dies At 31

ST. LOUIS, MO — Bassem Masri, a 31-year-old livestreamer who documented protests in Ferguson, Missouri, has died, the Post-Dispatch reports.

According to the paper, a bystander performed CPR on Masri after he was was found unresponsive on a bus in Bridgeton on Tuesday. He died at a hospital later that night. An autopsy is being performed, but authorities say they do not suspect foul play.

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During the heights of the Ferguson protests, sparked after a white police officer shot unarmed black teenager Michael Brown, Masri's ustream channel garnered almost 1.5 million views, although it appears his videos are no longer available to watch. The service was bought by IBM in 2016.

Masri, a Palestinian-American, told Amnesty International in 2015 that his camera gave him power that others in his community didn't have.

"If you're criminalized, you don't have no voice in government," he said. "We can't go to city hall. We can't go to anybody to ask for help, because at the end of the day they look at us like, we don't need to help you, you're a criminal. What's my word against an officer with a badge and a gun? ... But that camera gives me and him accountability."

RELATED: State Rep Releases Police Body Cam Video Of Protest Beating

Masri said he hoped to challenge mainstream media narratives by documenting protests from the ground level, adding that he believed only through awareness and solidarity could communities of color overcome discrimination.

"I know that I'm going to be on the right side of history," he said. "I'm not going to be just complicit and silent and sitting at home while good people are out there trying to make a change, it just doesn't work like that. Until we can feel safe, there is no going home."

Masri had also been interviewed by Rolling Stone and the New York Times and was featured in a documentary about Ferguson called "Whose Streets?" Last summer he said that he intended to run for state representative.

"When I win the seat in the Missouri house in 2020 better get ready for my unfiltered candidness," Masri wrote on Facebook in August. "Because I wont let any lobby influence me & I’m going to work hard on police reform, going after big pharma for creating this opioid crisis as well as getting those addicted ppl help."

State Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal called him "a very loyal friend & ally" on Twitter, adding that she had invited Masri to her house to discuss his interest in running for office.

Masri is the latest in a string of Ferguson activists to die since the protests four years ago. Last month, 24-year-old Danye Jones was found hanged in his mother's back yard. Police say the death was a suicide, while Jones' mother insisted he was murdered.

In 2016, the St. Louis American reported, 29-year-old Darren Seals, another Ferguson activist, was shot in his car. The car was then set on fire. Police haven't made any arrests in his case. And in 2017, 27-year-old Edward Crawford, who was captured in an iconic photo by Post-Dispatch photographer Robert Cohen wearing an American flag shirt and hurling a burning tear gas canister back at police, shot himself, according to investigators. Family members disagreed with the suicide ruling in that case too.

Some, including Chappelle-Nadal, have said they believe a murderer is targeting Ferguson activists, but others say the deaths are part of a different but still disturbing trend.

"I don’t discount the possibility of foul play in some of these, but deaths of well-known Ferguson activists every few months underscores two realities: the protests were led by poor black and brown people. In America, poor black and brown people die young," writes Washington Post justice correspondent Wesley Lowery.

Image via YouTube