Lawyers for a Boeing whistleblower found dead on the day he was due to testify against the jetliner giant are questioning that he killed himself in a South Carolina parking lot — and calling for an investigation.
“We need more information about what happened to John,” attorneys Robert Turkewitz and Brian Knowles, who represent former Boeing manager John Barnett, said in a statement Tuesday. “The Charleston police need to investigate this fully and accurately and tell the public.
“We didn’t see any indication he would take his own life,” they added. “No one can believe it.”
“No detail can be left unturned.”
Barnett, 62, was due in court for further testimony in a bombshell lawsuit against the company when he was found dead, with the Charleston County coroner ruling the cause as a “self-inflicted” wound.
Barnett was a quality control engineer who worked for the company for more than three decades before he retired in 2017 — and two years later told the BBC that Boeing cut corners by rushing to get its 787 Dreamliner jets off the production line and into service.
Turkewitz and Knowles said he was also “in very good spirits” as he prepared to give a deposition against the company on Monday.
“John was in the midst of a deposition in his whistleblower case, which finally was nearing the end,” the lawyers said. “He was in very good spirits and really looking forward to putting this phase of his life behind him and moving on.”
Charleston police are investigating the circumstances of Barnett’s death.
A statement from the police department said officers had been called to perform a welfare check on Saturday morning and “discovered a male inside a vehicle suffering from a gunshot wound to the head.”
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