Investigators in Charleston, South Carolina, have announced the results of their investigation into the death. boeing whistleblower John Barnett was found dead in his truck in March after failing to show up for the second day of a deposition in his lawsuit against the aerospace manufacturer.
Authorities said Barnett did not arrive for the proceeding, so his lawyer called for a medical examination, and he was found in a hotel parking lot with a gunshot wound to the head.
The man was holding a handgun in his right hand, and investigators later observed that the man had bullet holes in his hand. A shell casing was found inside the truck, and a suicide note was left on the passenger seat.
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“All findings were consistent with a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” Charleston County Coroner Bobby Joe O’Neill’s report said.
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His official cause of death is a gunshot wound. The coroner concluded that the circumstances “can best be considered ‘suicide’.”
Additionally, police said he was alone and locked in the car with his key fob when he was found. Phone records showed no unusual movement patterns or signs of communication, and hotel surveillance video showed him leaving the hotel alone and reversing into the parking lot minutes later.
No one left or left the car until the gruesome discovery was made the next morning.
Boeing whistleblower John Burnett was surveilled, harassed by management, and sued.
Police said records show Barnett legally purchased a handgun in 2000, and fingerprints were found on the notebook in which the suicide note was written.
He had sued Boeing, alleging retaliation, harassment and spying on him.
A sign outside a Boeing manufacturing facility in Renton, Washington, U.S., Monday, Feb. 5, 2024. Boeing has discovered more mistakes with holes drilled in the fuselage of its 737 Max jets, which could further delay deliveries of the planes, a critical program already restricted by regulators over lapses in quality. (David Ryder/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
One of Barnett’s attorneys, Robert Turkewitz, previously told Fox News that he did not believe Barnett was involved in his client’s death, but that it “made no sense at all” for Barnett to commit suicide. He added.
His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the coroner’s findings.
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Barnett worked for Boeing for more than 30 years before retiring in 2017 as a quality control engineer. In 2019, he told the BBC that Boeing was rushing to remove the 787 Dreamliner from production lines, which would compromise safety.
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner will be built on May 30, 2023 at the airline’s assembly plant in North Charleston, South Carolina. The plant is located on the site of the joint-use Charleston Air Force Base and Charleston International Airport. (Juliet Michel/AFP via Getty Images)
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In January of this year, Barnett told TMZ He said he was concerned that Boeing was putting the 737 Max 9 back into the air too soon after an incident in which a door panel on an Alaska Airlines plane was blown off mid-flight.
Unrelated to Barnett’s lawsuit, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun announced that he will step down by the end of the year amid the company’s continued woes.
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