Ed Buck, a former West Hollywood Democratic donor and political activist, was last week sentenced to 30 years imprisonment for fatally injecting two gay men with methamphetamine in exchange for sex, which led to their deaths.
Sixty-seven-year-old Buck, who was white, preyed on vulnerable Black men who were struggling with addiction and homelessness for around a decade.
Even after the deaths of the two men at his residence, Buck continued to lure gay men to his house and inject them with high doses of methamphetamine, the prosecution said. He was not arrested until September 2019, when a a third man overdosed at his house twice in a week.
‘Party And Play’
The prosecution said that between 2011 and 2019, Buck engaged in a pattern they described as “party and play”.
Buck would lure the men via social media, dating apps, escort websites or through referrals by his former victims, who were paid a “finder’s fees”.
Ed Buck Moore (centre) and his victims Gemmel Moore (left) and Timothy Dean (right)
Once the men were at his apartment, the prosecution alleged that “Buck prepared syringes containing methamphetamine, sometimes personally injecting the victims with or without their consent. Buck also injected victims with more narcotics than they agreed to take, and sometimes he injected victims while they were unconscious. At trial, victims described how Buck put sedatives in their drinks or in the injections, causing them to lose consciousness or control over their bodies. While they were unconscious, Buck sexually assaulted his victims.”
On July 27, 2017, Buck killed Gemmel Moore with a lethal dose of methamphetamine. A year and a half later on January 7, 2019 he killed Timothy Dean with a lethal dose of methamphetamine.
United States Attorney Tracy L. Wilkison said that Buck continued to pose a ” a clear danger to society, as evidenced by him continuing to lure men to his apartment, even after he killed two men with lethal methamphetamine injections.”
‘Preying On Young Black Men’
“Ed Buck preyed on young black males who were vulnerable, isolated and were often fighting addiction,” said Kristi K. Johnson, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office.
“The evidence showed that Buck, in addition to causing the death of two men, also degraded his victims with racial slurs and exploited their circumstances, including homelessness and addiction, to indulge his sexual proclivities. This sentence will effectively remove a predator and hopefully deliver a degree of justice to the families of the victims.”
Jose Ramos, founder of Impulse Group, said that it was an “an important case that needs to bring awareness to the issue of predators like Buck who prey on vulnerable victims -Black men struggling with addiction and homelessness.”
“Would this have taken that long (to arrest Buck) if the men had been white?” said Ramos, adding, “I live on the same street where Ed Buck’s apartment is located. As this case evolved, I remember walking by the front of his building and seeing all the candles and flowers for weeks. I will gaze at his apartment and wonder how many gay men he drugged, raped and abused.”
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