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Memo Pad

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Another Black Man Dead, More Unanswered Questions

August 20th, 2012 12:00 am Leonard Pitts Jr.

What happened to Chavis Carter?

It is a pregnant question, potentially even an explosive one. Carter died of a gunshot wound to the temple on the last Saturday in July, but the question about his death has only grown louder and more urgent since then. It is beginning to gather national attention. So we need an answer soon, either so that suspicions can be put to rest and some imperfect peace achieved, or so that suspicions can be validated and some equally imperfect justice sought. The problem is, there are two possible answers to the question, and neither one of them makes much sense.

What happened to Chavis Carter?

The official story is that the 21-year-old African-American man was with two other people when they were detained by police in Jonesboro, Ark. The other two were released, but when the officers searched Carter, they found marijuana. He also had an outstanding warrant. So they searched him again, handcuffed him and put him in the back of their car. As police were preparing to leave, they smelled smoke. They opened the car and found Carter slumped over, covered in blood, dying from a bullet wound to his temple.

The police say he committed suicide.

Last week, the department released a video purporting to show how a man handcuffed in a backseat could shoot himself. The explanation might be easier to buy if the man’s name was Houdini, but even if you accept the possibility, it doesn’t answer all the questions this episode raises.

How do police search a man twice, find a baggie of pot, but miss something as obvious as a handgun? How did Carter, whose mother says he was left-handed, shoot himself in his right temple? Why would he do it?

Of course, the other theory — that police killed him — raises its own questions.

If you were going to kill a suspect, would you do it while he was handcuffed in the back of your own car? Wouldn’t you concoct a more plausible scenario? And again, why?

This encounter would have been nothing new for either the police or Carter. What could have made either of them cross that line?

Police Chief Michael Yates admitted to CNN that his officers’ story was “definitely bizarre and it defies logic at first glance.” But he said it was corroborated by a dash cam and by witnesses. Neither the footage nor the witness accounts have, at this writing, been made public. They should be. Meantime, the FBI is investigating, which is a welcome development.

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  • http://profile.yahoo.com/JMT6C3LHLJDD4RX4NB4KY5ICAE gargray

    He was killed with a police weapon?, test should prove that, shot in the right temple and he is left handed?, don’t they hancuff your hands behind your back? To many questions and no answers.

    • joyscarbo

      right…more investigations that need to establish how this could have happened. Twice frisked/searched and could come up with a baggie of weed but not a handgun? And then how does a man with his hands cuffed behind his back -left handed- somehow get this gun in his hand and contort his body in such a way that he could put a bullet into his right temple.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Fillmore/100003544967871 Mike Fillmore

    Call Al and Jesse.

    • joyscarbo

      They’re have more intellegence to say than John Michael, onedongwrong and Mike Fillmore. Of course there isn’t any racial undertones. Hmmmmm….sure feels very while around here.

  • onedonewong

    Suicide nothing more

    • joyscarbo

      So insightful and intertwined with logic and deduction…proves absolutely nothing other than black men turn into contorsionist wizards in the back of a police car for the sole need to comitt suicide. Cunning,, onedongwrong.

      • onedonewong

        The cops should have patted him own better. As to being contortionists all you have to do is to watch them dance

        • joyscarbo

          They frisked him twice and found a baggy of weed….how exactly did they miss a handgun?!! Agian, your ability to utilize any kind of basic logic only proves that you lack the intellegence that even pond scum organisms posess.
          Have a nice day!

          • onedonewong

            more than likely Al Sharpton was near by and shot him to gain some notoriety

        • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KOPKDFAUQPIIRAFI3HEXNMSHLQ Ed

          Your choice of the word “them” says everything we ned to know about your mindset.

          • notworking

            Your point?? Your not trying to say it isn’t true are you???

      • http://profile.yahoo.com/DQOGOEA6NZRBL3ACMHXVD36Z2A x

        both you (joyscarbo) and onedonewong are idiots…plain and simple…had it been coked up white guy your dimwitted comments would be totally opposite…goes to show racism will never die due to the lack of confidence of people just like you two dullards.

        • joyscarbo

          Really….what did I say that was soooo stupid? That it’s highly unlikely that a cop could frisk a suspect TWICE, find a baggie of weed but NOT find a gun?! My only arguement is that more investigation was needed to find out how a handcuffed suspect could shoot himself in the temple, causing his death.
          Onedonewong has made more outrageous, racist comments. I have a right to say something back, especially because half of my immediate family IS African-American. My children are African-Americans. I’ve seen first hand that the rules don’t always apply in to black folks the way they apply to white folks. Like it or not, racism is still alive and well in this country. Racism is not by any means around every corner or in every interaction. I’m just recognizing that it still exists. If you cannot or do not recognize that simle reality, then you don’t know much…but I stop at calling YOU can idiot.
          And thanks for coming the the conversation that took place a full 2 weeks ago!!!!!!!

  • richard bensen

    technology can determin this death…It’s just to see if the right team does that research.What if it proves he did commit suicide?..would you then stop this ”race baiting”rhetoric?….doubt it……..

    • joyscarbo

      Mr. Bensen…do you suppose that Mr. Chavis was “standing his ground” on himself? He had no other option but to shoot in his own defense. Seems a little white trashy around here right now….a littel redneckish…..eeewwwwwww

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ATGR2DYIRZEGBXMGIFD5IYHMFU John Michael

    NBC.. the official race baiting network of the democrat party…. They don’t have enough info yet to make their selective edits..

    • http://profile.yahoo.com/6YZZDVA5QKX34HSSVDS5VURGA4 Cynthia Price

      What does a Party have to do with this Story? Typical Midwest, Uneducated, Fox induced Coma

  • scamp844

    Let’s see. Three black men were stopped by police. Two were released, the other one had an outstanding arrest warrant and possessed drugs. The same police who released the other two persons are then supposed to have “murdered” the third. I suspect he really did commit suicide..

    • grammyjill

      His hands were still cuffed behind his back when found. Don’t see how suicide is possible. Is possible that one of the two released came back though.

    • http://www.facebook.com/warren.nicholson.77 Warren Nicholson

      The two men who were released were white.

      • joyscarbo

        YEP, white guys get off….black guy held…surprise!!!

  • joyscarbo

    This event deserves the most competent investigators who can comprehensively recreate the scene of the crimes. We want the animated action to tell us all step-by-step how this could haeppn.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KOPKDFAUQPIIRAFI3HEXNMSHLQ Ed

    “The public trust?” Surely you jest! I am a law abiding citizen, retired after 30 years as a safety engineer. A volunteer in my community on recue squads, fire departments and as both a First Aid and water safety instructor for the American Red Cross. I have served on the Red Cross Disaster Team. I havE been on the streets at all hours of the day and night and am intimately familiar with the police of several municipalities I am well aware that the color of my skin provided some protective covering for me as I served my community in times of distress, including feeding police offices working disaster scenes, I am on a first name basis with many. HOWEVER, I am ACUTLY aware that the actions of individual police officers changes severly when they are in groups, and even MORE SEVERLEY when they are faced with a crowd, even a docile one. As a long time observer I am of the deep rooted opinion that the justice system in this country is a FARCE. I fully understand that when one spends days on end dealing with persons who are dirty, foul muth and, in some cases, live in what seems to be a pig stye(particularly to officers living in the suburbs) that your opinion of people may be affected against these people, BUT IT HAPPENS! I have seen fear in the eyes of police officers, who are only trying to do their job, when they find themselves facing an agry mob of family members and freinds. I fully understand that their PRIMARY objective is to go home at end of shift to their families. However, since the election of this president latent racism seems to be rising to the surface. Do not delude yourself that the passage of civil rights laws have changed the hearts of many of our people. As always, YAHOOprovides a smattering of details which leaves us unable to determine the facts in this case, thus there will be more charges and countercharges on the web.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KOPKDFAUQPIIRAFI3HEXNMSHLQ Ed

    Any time an agency claims to have visual evidence in a case in which, clearly, the accused party will not be going to trial, it raises questions.

  • StepOff

    Da boy done got shot end of story move on

  • StepOff

    da boy done got trayvonned. Did zimmerman do it or is this a copycat zimmerman.

  • http://www.facebook.com/NLHoldemlegend84 Justin Tyler

    STRANGER THINGS HAVE HAPPENED……..

  • Lord Edmund Moletrousers

    Law & Order is in a state of disrepair in the US, you only have to look at the Supreme Courts ruling to uphold Obamacare as constituional to understand why.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Edward-C-Stengel/1512121897 Edward C. Stengel

    We had an incident like this in Chicago about a year ago, where a homeless man was arrested for panhandling, handcuffed behind the back, put in the back of a squad car, and then allegedly shot himself in the head and committed “suicide.” Both of these men were murdered by the police, and, like the article says, even Harry Houdini, the greatest magician in world history, would have a hard time pulling off something like this.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Barry-Soetoro/100004210471286 Barry Soetoro

    One of the other dudes plugged him to make sure he didn’t snitch Case closed.

  • http://www.facebook.com/alex.comnenus.9 Alex Comnenus

    Is anyone stupid enough to believe that he shot himself while handcuffed? Too much police racism, too much racism period. If people ever decide to revolt please let me know

  • http://www.facebook.com/Bro.MinisterSirajullah Derrick Smith

    That’s Amerikkka for you. They forced us to learn that bloody religion
    yet they don’t even follow the TRUE MEANING of being Christ-Like.
    This makes me hate this country. Grossful social Injustices against
    African-Americans.

  • http://www.facebook.com/Bro.MinisterSirajullah Derrick Smith

    They(Those malicious,misguided,racist,and corrupt PIGS premeditated
    the death of Bro. Chavis Carter. There’s NO QUESTION about it. Those PIGS
    willfully and with RACIST INTENT, killed Mr.Carter because of ;The Color Of HIS SKIN.
    Fkn Amerikkka.

  • http://www.facebook.com/Bro.MinisterSirajullah Derrick Smith

    WHY I HATE AMERIKKKA