[NYP] An Alabama preacher and politician killed himself Friday two days after being outed for having a secret life he shared online as a "transgender curvy girl."
F.L. "Bubba" Copeland, who was the mayor of tiny Smiths Station, with a population of just 6,756, as well as the pastor at First Baptist Church in nearby Phenix City, shot himself around 5 p.m. in front of sheriffs who were following him.
Copeland was a married father of three.
His suicide came after police were asked to do a welfare check and began tailing his car.
"He exited the vehicle, produced a handgun, and took his own life," the sheriff’s office said.
Copeland’s suicide followed an exposé in 1819 News, a news site once owned by the conservative think tank, the Alabama Policy Institute, that described Copeland’s secret life online as a transgender woman under the pseudonym Brittini Blaire Summerlin. |