"If anything happens, it's not suicide": Boeing, $BA, John Barnett whistleblower reportedly said before his death to a close friend, per ABC.
Barnett, 62, was discovered deceased in his pickup truck in a Charleston, South Carolina, hotel parking lot on March 9 — the same day he was scheduled to conclude his closed-door testimony in a lawsuit against his former employer.
Although authorities initially stated that Barnett died from a "self-inflicted" gunshot wound to the head, his lawyers, family, and friends have since cast doubt on whether the former Boeing quality control engineer actually took his own life.
"I know that he did not commit suicide. There’s no way," a family friend, identified only as Jennifer, told ABC 4.
Jennifer claimed Barnett had expressed concerns to her that he might end up deceased after he began publicly voicing his safety concerns related to Boeing following his retirement in 2017.
"He wasn’t concerned about [his own] safety because I asked him," Jennifer said. "I said, ‘Aren’t you scared?’ And he said, ‘No, I ain’t scared, but if anything happens to me, it’s not suicide.'"
The timing of their conversation was not immediately clear.
Jennifer said they had discussed his upcoming deposition in the Boeing legal case during that same conversation.
The friend, who said she last saw Barnett at her father’s funeral in late February, where he served as a pallbearer, believes someone "didn’t like what he had to say" and allegedly wanted to "shut him up."
"That’s why they made it look like a suicide," Jennifer alleged in the interview.
