many lynchings occurred because the perpetrators of crime, who were often part of the lynching party, found the lynching victims to be useful scapegoats. EG, you rape some woman, then you gather up a posse and hang a black man for the crime of the rape. Then you can take the black man's farm too.
I wouldn't be surprised if it eventually comes out that something similar went on here. Menezes has affair with cop's wife - cop shoots Menezes as terrorist?