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Arkansas Police Release More Footage Related to Man\'s Death

By CHRISTINE HAUSER

Witnesses in the Chavis Carter case in Arkansas said they heard a popping sound, then saw two police officers involved in his arrest approach the back seat of the patrol car where Mr. Carter had been placed in handcuffs and was later found with a fatal gunshot wound. That was according to new material released by the Jonesboro Police Department, which has said Mr. Carter apparently shot himself during the arrest last month.

New dashboard camera footage and witness interviews were released by the department late on Thursday as the police continued to try to address the questions and criticism that have swelled up over the death of Mr. Carter, a 21-year-old black man who was arrested by two white officers on a dark street in Jonesboro in late July.

As The Lede reported this week, coverage of the case has grown as news outlets and social media focused on the circumstances of Mr. Carter's death, even as the police tried earlier this week to show with a video re-enactment that a man in handcuffs could twist around to raise a gun to his own head.

In the latest release of footage on Thursday night, one of the videos identifies a woman, Jamie Anderson, being questioned in a police interrogation room. “It sounded like a gun going off,” she said, after describing herself as a resident of the area where the police responded to a 911 call from neighbors suspicious of the truck that Mr. Carter and two other young men had been riding in. “They were standing on the outside of the car,” she said of the officers. She said she saw the officers go toward the car, then heard some yelling.

Another witness, Casper Gibson, in a recorded phone interview with the police, said he was also watching “the whole time” as the scene unfolded, and the police searched and handcuffed the youths, later putting only Mr. Carter in the patrol car. Mr. Gibson said he he ard “a little pop” but thought a car that passed by had run over something. Then he said he saw officers “within two minutes” open the back doors of the vehicle.

Witness interview from the police

More than an hour of the new material was posted online by KAIT8.com news. It still appears to have left many with more questions than answers.

The entire footage is edited in parts, and shows no animosity during the arrest and questioning of the three youths. Excerpts of dashboard camera footage showed the officers approaching the truck after it was s topped on Haltom Street in Jonesboro.

In normal tones of voice, the officers discuss what to do with Mr. Carter's cellphone, have trouble spelling his name while trying to radio it in, and try to guess what the white powder is in a plastic bag, believing it to be sugar. Eventually, the officers release two of the youths but confer about what to do with Mr. Carter because he has an open arrest warrant in Mississippi.

Cars drive by the arrest stop, their headlights visible in the mirrors of the patrol car. Cellphones ring. At one point, a female voice can be heard asking an officer what is to become of Mr. Carter, and the response is that he will be held. Then the officer says he that is sorry he could not help her any further and says thank you. One of the responding officers, Keith Baggett, said in a separate incident report that Mr. Carter had identified the woman as his aunt. Officer Baggett's narrative then says:

“At that time I saw a vehicle driving north on Haltom and then heard a loud thump with a metallic sound.” He added that he thought it had run over “a piece of metal”. Officer Baggett said he and the other officer, Officer Ron Marsh, started going to their vehicles. Officer Baggett was about to drive away when Officer Marsh gestured to him and “said that Carter had shot himself.”

“We went to the rear passenger side door, opened it and I observed Carter in a sitting position slumped forward with his head in his lap. There was a large amount of blood on the front of his shirt, pants, seat and floor. His hands were still cuffed behind his back.”

Mr. Carter was still breathing. The officers called an ambulance. The state crime laboratory has yet to release the autopsy results and other reports related to his death, an official said.

A lawyer for the Carter family, Benjamin Irwin of the Cochran Firm, said the material released by the Police Department shed litt le light on what happened to Mr. Carter but that it was clear the officers had a duty to protect him when he was in their custody.

“I feel like we have been given a lot of information but none of it is related to the specific question of what happened to Chavis,” he said on Friday in an interview. “The family and I have spoken and their first concern is to find out what happened to their child. It is too early for us to draw conclusions as to officer involvement or not. Everybody is going to continue to go through everything and pay attention to every detail, and we hope all the truth comes out. We want to know what happened to Chavis Carter that night.”