[Vision2020] The Curious Case of Chavis Carter

[Art Deco]

  [image: The New York Times] <http://www.nytimes.com/>

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August 3, 2012
The Curious Case of Chavis Carter By CHARLES M. BLOW

Let me get this straight: A young man is stopped by police, who find $10
worth of drugs on him; he had twice been searched by officers and then
double handcuffed behind his back and placed in the back of a police car;
yet, somehow, he retrieves a gun that both searches failed to find and uses
it shoot himself in the right temple?

That is what police in Jonesboro, Ark., say happened on the evening of
Sunday, July 29, to Chavis Carter, a 21-year-old African-American man from
Southaven, Miss., a suburb of Memphis. They say he committed suicide with a
hidden gun while handcuffed in the back of a police cruiser. According to a
local CBS News report<http://wtvr.com/2012/07/31/handcuffed-man-found-shot-in-back-of-police-car/>,
his mother was told that he shot himself in the right temple, but she
claims that Chavis was left-handed.

The strange circumstances of this case, which even the Jonesboro police
chief, Michael Yates, called
“bizarre”<http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Rt_Kwmv5nFs>and
said “defies
logic at first glance<http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/08/02/630921/jonesboro-police-chief-defends-officers-in-chavis-carter-shooting/>,”
have raised questions that sorely need answering.

First, some background on how Carter came into contact with police that
Sunday night.

According to a statement released Friday by the Jonesboro Police
Department, Chavis was a passenger in a “suspicious vehicle” mentioned in a
911 call because it was “observed driving down the street with its lights
off” at 9:50 p.m. Three people were in the vehicle: the driver, Carter and
another passenger.

According to the statement, Carter, who originally gave a false name —
Laryan Bowman — was “ ‘frisked’ or ‘patted down,’ not necessarily a full
search at this point” because the officers on the scene “did not know what
they had nor if any arrests were to be made.” During that first search, “a
small amount of marijuana and some small plastic bags commonly used to
package drugs were discovered in Carter’s pocket.” According to the police
report, the estimated value of it was $10.

The police then determined that Carter “had an active warrant out of
Mississippi.” According to The Commercial
Appeal<http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2012/aug/03/family-of-southaven-man-want-answers-about-his/>of
Memphis, a warrant had been issued for Carter’s arrest after he
violated
his probation. He had pleaded guilty in 2011 to one count of selling
marijuana.

He was placed in the back of one of the police cars on the scene without
being handcuffed.

The other two people in the car “had no drugs and no active warrants,” so
they were released.

Carter was then taken out of the police car, at which point officers
“cuffed him behind his back and searched his person again” and placed him
back into the police car.

Then things get strange. According to the police statement:

“As the officers then returned to their vehicles to leave, the second
officer entered his vehicle and noted the smell of something burning (gun
smoke we believe) and noticed Carter slumped over on the passenger side of
the police unit. The officer then opened the rear door and noticed Carter
unresponsive with a quantity of blood on him. At this point, he ran to the
other officer to prevent him from leaving and both officers returned to the
second unit, opened both doors and began to attempt to assist Carter (who
was still handcuffed behind his back) and summoned an ambulance. The
ambulance arrived and transported Carter to the hospital where he died a
short time later.”

The statement continues:

“Investigators were called to the scene and began processing the evidence,
photographing and securing evidence. A small .380 caliber cobra semi-auto
firearm was discovered, as well as an expended case, and a projectile
(which was recovered in the rear of the vehicle).”

(The police say that the handgun had been reported stolen from a Jonesboro
resident in June.)

Police say that they have interviewed “a number of witnesses” to the
incident and that their “statements are consistent with the statements of
the officers and the evidence reflected by the dash-cam video of the
responding officer, along with audio evidence from the backup officer.”

According to the police, “the statements and video/audio evidence account
for the officers’ actions from the beginning of the stop until the arrival
of the ambulance and indicate that neither officer removed his weapon,
fired a shot or was in a position to enter the vehicle where Carter was
detained in a manner that would allow for them to injure Carter.”

Furthermore, “the windows on the patrol unit where Carter was detained were
up and intact, indicating no possibility of a bullet penetrating from the
outside of the patrol unit while Carter was detained.” Yet, “specifically,
how Carter suffered his apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound remains
unexplained.”

That is the question, isn’t it? How do police officers search a man twice
and find a small amount of marijuana but miss a handgun? And how does that
man, who had been handcuffed, use that gun to shoot himself in the head?

The F.B.I. is now monitoring the investigation while a nation waits for
answers and wonders about a “suicide” that “defies logic.”


-- 
Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
art.deco.studios at gmail.com
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