Ed Buck to Be Charged in Deaths of Gemmel Moore and Timothy Dean

After a rescheduled arraignment date, Ed Buck will be charged in the deaths of Gemmel Moore and Timothy Dean, according to multiple sources. Buck was arrested on Tuesday and charged with three felony counts of maintaining a drug house, administering methamphetamine, and battery causing serious injury in connection with the overdose of an unnamed victim.

Buck, a failed candidate for West Hollywood City Council in 2007 and political donor, has been long accused of murdering gay Black men. In 2017, Gemmel Moore was found dead in Buck's apartment of an overdose. In a personal journal prior to his death, Moore said that Buck had introduced him to crystal meth, which would eventually cause his death.

Buck was not arrested or charged in connection with the case at the time.

In January 2019, Timothy Dean was also found dead of a meth overdose in Buck's residence. While the sheriff's department went on record and admitted there was a pattern to their deaths, they did not arrest or charge Buck with a crime.

The occurrences have sparked protests and pushback by community members. Jasmyne Cannick, a longtime journalist, political commentator, and social activist, has been at the forefront of that, demanding justice in the case of these Black men, as well as other survivors who have come forward to report similar experiences with Buck.

Cannick was on the scene, at the accused's home, following Buck's arrest.

"He's in jail, where he belongs," Cannick told Out on Wednesday. "I feel vindicated, because a lot of people said it wasn't going to happen. Even our own people felt like no one was going to take these men seriously and what he's doing to them. I felt happy for the families."

"The life expectancy of Black gay men in L.A. County just substantially increased with he arrest of Ed Buck," she added. "Black gay men here are a little more safer now that that man isn't on the streets."

The initial arrest and the resulting charges were only in connection with Buck's third victim from earlier this month. According to KTLA, court documents allege that Buck brought the victim to his home and injected him with a large dose of methamphetamine. The victim left, afraid he was having an overdose, to receive medical attention but returned a few days later. Buck then injected him again, this time with two large doses, causing the victim to overdose and refused to help the victim.

Prosecutors went on to say that Buck refused the victim's attempts to get help until he escaped the apartment and called 911 from a gas station.

Cannick revealed toOut that this victim was also a Black gay man. The charges, in connection with his forced overdose, would only see Buck imprisoned for a maximum of five years and eight months if found guilty.

"I've been around for a while and people just don't value our lives, just Black people period," Cannick says. "Our lives aren't valued in the way other people's lives are. Then when you break that down into Black lesbian women, Black gay men, Black queer and trans people, that is a whole other dichotomy. If they were white gay men, people would've been falling all over themselves. If it was white women, people would've been falling all over themselves."

"I think also says to those men that Ed Buck preys on that somebody cares and maybe there will be some justice," she added. "And I hope more of them come out of the shadows now that he's been arrested and want to talk about what he did to them, because he's been doing this for years and years and years."

According to reports, there may not only be justice in the case of this unnamed victim but also possibly in the cases of Dean and Moore.

"Ed Buck will be charged by the feds today with providing drugs that led to the death of Gemel Moore," a correspondent for CBS Los Angeles tweeted today. "Big break in the case. The DA had passed on charges. Now the feds step in."

Ashlee Marie Preston, a journalist and activist, expanded on that news.

"After his arraignment this morning; Ed Buck is going to be charged in the deaths of Gemmel Moore and Timothy Dean," she tweeted. "He's being transferred into federal custody."

Out's Director of Culture and Entertainment Tre'vell Anderson contributed reporting to this story.

*This is a developing story and will be updated.

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