Black Lives Matter activist found dead one week after she went missing in Florida
Tallahassee police found the bodies of Oluwatoyin “Toyin” Salau, along with 75-year-old Victoria Sims, on Saturday. Their deaths are being investigated as homicides.
The tweets said that Salau had left some belongings at a church where she was seeking shelter and a man who’d offered her a ride to recollect the items later molested her while she tried to sleep.
It’s unclear whether Glee is the same man Salau reported had molested her. CNN has reached out to Tallahassee Police to confirm Salau’s account of sexual assault and is waiting to hear back.
Sims was a longtime AARP volunteer. Her family declined to comment on her death.
A 19-year-old activist and friend
Salau had been Carney’s friend since before high school, she said. The 19-year-old taught herself to sew, paint and design her own clothes.
“She had so many dreams and she never gave up,” Carney said. But she’d endured a tremendous amount of pain, too; Carney described her as a sad person with the “happiest soul.”
And she was always a vocal supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement.
“When she started protesting with us, that was the happiest I’ve ever seen her,” Carney said.
Toyin Salau was a dedicated activist and a self-taught artist, her friends said.
“At the end of the day, I cannot take my f*****g skin color off,” Salau says in the clip. “Everywhere I f*****g go, I am profiled whether I like it or not… So guess what? I’m gonna die by it. I’m going to die by my f*****g skin. You cannot take my f*****g blackness away from me.”
Her passion endeared her to Alina Amador, a photographer who frequently recruited Salau to model for her.
“Her beauty was so radiant, and modeling for her was so effortless,” she said. “She was very calm and gentle.”
Carney said her friend’s death has motivated her to fight for black women like Toyin.
“I will never stop protesting,” Carney said. “I will fight for her and for black people and people of color ’til I’m dead.”
