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August 23, 2012

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Chavis Carter
Chavis Carter

Arkansas Lab Rules Handcuffed Man Committed Suicide

The Arkansas State Crime Laboratory has issued a report saying that a black man who was handcuffed behind his back in the backseat of a patrol car committed suicide.

“The manner of death was suicide,” the state crime lab reported on Aug. 17, after examining 21-year-old Chavis Chacobie Carter’s body  on July 30, according the to the medical examiner’s office, which is based in Little Rock.

Dr. Stephen A. Erickson, deputy chief medical examiner and the pathologist of record, Dr. Daniel W. Dye, associate medical examiner and a reviewer, and  Dr. Charles P. Kokes, chief medical examiner and a reviewer, all signed the seven-page report, which was obtained by The NorthStar News & Analysis.

“The manner of death is based on both autopsy findings and the investigative conclusions of the Jonesboro, Ark., police department. On July 29, Jonesboro police picked up Carter and his two white companions because the trio were riding in a suspicious vehicle. Police let the white guys go. However, police arrested Carter based on an outstanding warrant from Mississippi.

Police frisked Carter and put him in the back of the patrol car. He wasn’t handcuffed at the time, according to news reports quoting Jonesboro Police Chief Michael Yates. The cops took Carter out of the patrol car and frisked him again, but this time they cuffed him.

“They handcuffed and placed the 150-pound Carter into the police car, where apparently he produced a weapon, and despite being handcuffed, shot himself in the head,” according to medical examiner’s opinion. “At the time of discharge, the muzzle of the gun was placed against the right temporal scalp.”

Police said they found Carter’s body covered with blood and slumped in the backseat.

The medical examiners’ report leaves a lot of questions unanswered. Police had said they twice frisked Carter but they did not find a gun. The report mentions that the head wound measured 7/16 x 3/4 of an inch.

Sgt. Lyle Waterworth, public-information officer for the Jonesboro Police Department, told The NorthStar News that police found a .380 Cobra semiautomatic pistol.

Last week, the Jonesboro police department “re-enacted” the shooting to show how the left-handed Carter could have shot himself in the right temple with handcuffs in place. 

The young man’s mother, Teresa Carter, said she believes that police murdered her son and that they are now trying to cover it up.

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