Marco McMillian, a 33-year-old management consultant who was campaigning to be mayor of the city of Clarksdale, was found dead near a levee on the Mississippi river last week.
One of the first openly gay political candidates in the southern US state of Mississippi was beaten, dragged and set on fire during his murder, his family has claimed.
Marco McMillian, a 33-year-old management consultant who was campaigning to be mayor of the city of Clarksdale, was found dead near a levee on the Mississippi river last week.
Lawrence Reed, a local 22 year-old who crashed McMillian's car the day before, has been charged with his murder. The authorities have declined to elaborate further.
McMillian's family said that his body was bruised and burned.
"We feel that this was not a random act of violence, based on the condition of the body when it was found," they said in a statement.
His godfather, Carter Womack, said that relations had tried to talk him out of running for office. "The family feels this ought to be investigated as a hate crime," he said.
Scotty Meredith, the Coahoma County medical examiner, told CNN that McMillian had been "beaten, but not badly" and that his death was probably the result of "a personal dispute".
Will Rooker, a spokesman for the Coahoma County sheriff's office, said police were still examining the possibility that it had been a targeted attack.
"At this time we are investigating all areas of the case and we have not ruled anything out," Mr Rooker told The Daily Telegraph.
McMillian, who had been living in Memphis, Tennessee, moved back home to Clarksdale, a city of about 20,000 on the Mississippi Delta renowned for its history of blues music, in order to run for office.
His family has rejected local suggestions that he may have been in a relationship with Reed. They say they had never heard of the 22 year-old, who has a girlfriend.
Unlike many other states, Mississippi, which frequently ranks as America's most conservative state, does not classify offences based on a victim's sexual orientation as hate crimes.
For McMillian's killer to be charged in those terms, local authorities would have to pass the case to US government prosecutors, who could pursue it as a federal hate crime.
McMillian's aides said that he was the first openly gay and viable candidate ever to run for public office in Mississippi.
A spokesman for The Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund and Institute, which supports gay candidates, said: "Our hearts go out to the family and friends of Marco McMillian."
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