The University of Mississippi says it asked the FBI in March to investigate a photograph of three male students posing with guns beside a historic marker to lynching victim Emmett Till.
Ole Miss spokesman Rod Guajardo says the students have been suspended by fraternity Kappa Alpha Order.
The FBI declined to investigate, Guajardo says, but a U.S. attorney tells the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting that federal prosecutors are examining the case.
Guajardo calls the image “offensive and hurtful” but says the university hasn’t disciplined the students because the off-campus picture wasn’t part of a university event.
It’s unclear if the men fired at the sign or when the picture was taken.
Patrick Weems, who oversees the marker, says it was vandalized twice last year.
Till was slain in 1955.
