Greenpeace Activist Dies

Greenpeace said Wednesday that one of nine activists charged with felony counts in an eye-catching protest at Procter & Gamble Co. headquarters has died.

Tyler David Wilkerson was 27 when he died Oct. 6. A cause of death was not made public. An Oct. 10 obituary in the Fresno (California) Bee newspaper said he served as a US Marine in Afghanistan and Iraq. A memorial service was held Sunday.
 

Wilkerson was among eight activists facing trial in Cincinnati on burglary and vandalism charges. The ninth has pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of breaking and entering.
 

To call attention to what they said was P&G's use of palm oil from a supplier tied to rainforest destruction, the activists slipped past the company's security March 4 and used a zip line to unfurl giant banners from P&G's two towers as a helicopter filmed them. One was dressed in a tiger costume.