How Did 21-Year-Old Chavis Carter Get Shot In The Head While Handcuffed In A Police C

[jaxx]

How Did 21-Year-Old Chavis Carter Get Shot In The Head While Handcuffed In A Police Car?
By Aviva Shen on Aug 1, 2012 at 3:30 pm

Police in Jonesboro, Arkansas have launched an investigation into how 21-year-old Chavis Carter was shot in the back of a patrol car Saturday night.

Carter, who died at the hospital, was in the passenger seat of a pickup truck that was pulled over by police just before 10 pm, reports WREG. According to Officer Keith Baggett who was on the scene, Officer Ron Marsh found “some marijuana” and several new plastic baggies when he searched Carter. When they ran his information through dispatch, they found that he was wanted on a warrant in Mississippi, where he lived. The cops then handcuffed him, searched him again, and put him in the back of the patrol car. While Baggett searched the vehicle, he claims he heard “a loud thump with a metallic sound” on his trunk and saw Marsh motion to him.

The thumping noise, according to the cops, was Carter shooting himself in the head.

The police report attributed the death to a self-inflicted gunshot, though when the two officers opened the squad car door, they found Carter’s hands were still cuffed behind his back. The gun, they said, was somehow missed in both searches.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/08...andcuffed/

This is bizarre.

[jaxx]

Jonesboro Police Chief Defends Officers, Admits Claim Handcuffed Man Committed Suicide ‘Defies Logic’

By Aviva Shen on Aug 2, 2012 at 2:30 pm

On the Jane Velez Mitchell show Wednesday evening, Jonesboro Police Chief Michael Yates revealed more details about the ongoing investigation into the strange case of Chavis Carter, who allegedly shot himself in the temple while handcuffed in a police car. The chief, who said the situation was “bizarre” and “defies logic at first glance,” has reviewed the car’s dashboard camera and spoken to witnesses who say the officers were outside the car when Carter was shot:

<..> Update
The full police report, posted online by The Grio, shows that Carter was detained with two other men in the car and had 10 dollars worth of marijuana on him.

Update
The FBI confirms they are involved in the investigation

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/08...-shooting/

I coulda swore I read he was in the car alone, but I must be wrong.

[PoliticalTiger]

Unless he was a contortionist it's hard to see how he could have shot himself in the head with his hands in handcuffs behind his back, not to mention seems improbable that they would search him and find some pot and some plastic baggies but miss a gun!

[jaxx]

(08-02-2012 09:04 PM)PoliticalTiger Wrote:  Unless he was a contortionist it's hard to see how he could have shot himself in the head with his hands in handcuffs behind his back, not to mention seems improbable that they would search him and find some pot and some plastic baggies but miss a gun!

Yeah they say they searched him twice. It's all really strange.

[jaxx]

A lot more info here:

Chavis Carter case: Officers released 2 others before alleged ‘suicide’
by Joy-Ann Reid | August 2, 2012 at 1:16 PM

JONESBORO, Ark. – Chavis Chacobie Carter’s fatal shooting while handcuffed in the back of a patrol car occurred while police detained, and then released, two other men who were with Carter that night, the police incident report by one of the officers on the scene reveals.

http://thegrio.com/2012/08/02/chavis-car...d-suicide/

[PoliticalTiger]

(08-02-2012 09:15 PM)jaxx Wrote:  A lot more info here:

Chavis Carter case: Officers released 2 others before alleged ‘suicide’
by Joy-Ann Reid | August 2, 2012 at 1:16 PM

JONESBORO, Ark. – Chavis Chacobie Carter’s fatal shooting while handcuffed in the back of a patrol car occurred while police detained, and then released, two other men who were with Carter that night, the police incident report by one of the officers on the scene reveals.

http://thegrio.com/2012/08/02/chavis-car...d-suicide/

Very strange! The part about the victim's aunt pulling up and the cop guessing "that Carter may have called the aunt while he was in the patrol car not handcuffed" stood out to me. If he was suicidal, wouldn't that be the time he would shoot himself, when he's in the back seat of the cop car and not handcuffed?

I don't know. It just doesn't make sense. A lot of unanswered questions and I hope they do a thorough investigation of just what happened there.

[pappy]

If police were away from the car someone else could have shot him then left the gun behind on purpose so as not to get caught with it.

I am inclined to believe it was not suicide and the gun was a plant. The obvious suspicion falls on the police but if all police can be accounted for by the cams then other avenues need to be investigated. An autopsy should confirm or refute whether gun powder residue is present on his hands.

[SeattleGirl]

(08-02-2012 09:26 PM)pappy Wrote:  If police were away from the car someone else could have shot him then left the gun behind on purpose so as not to get caught with it.

I am inclined to believe it was not suicide and the gun was a plant. The obvious suspicion falls on the police but if all police can be accounted for by the cams then other avenues need to be investigated. An autopsy should confirm or refute whether gun powder residue is present on his hands.

Good point about the gun powder residue. There may well be some, since he was shot in the head and his hands were handcuffed behind his head. However, I would think that if he actually did pull the trigger (and I really don't see how that could be possible), it would seem that there would be more on them than if they were behind his head.

This really is a suspicious case.

[Brewman_Jax]

How Did 21-Year-Old Chavis Carter Get Shot In The Head While Handcuffed In A Police Car

Another black man dead while in police custody...again? This might be another case for federal investigation.

[OptimistesMaddie]

worth of weed. The war on drugs is a failure. This man and countless others are dead or in jail for life for small amounts of pot. Yet, people that committ more serious crimes are walking free.

I hope that when President Obama gets reelected this war on drugs is retired. Legalize it and tax the shit out of it.

People say it's a gate way drug, that's bullshit. Liquor is a gateway drug....and sold in every store, kills and maims thousands of people every year.

I am so sick of these deaths that should have never happened.