Handcuffed student shoots himself in the head in the back of a police car after officers took him in

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
! Perhaps the next kid keeps his gun until getting into the station lock-up or the first entry of the Jail

Happened at a department near me. The guy was brought into the station's processing area (not jail, but has locked rooms where you can put prisoners before they go to big boy jail like if you have a lot of evidence to process or something). The area was not filled with any other prisoners at the time, but the prisoner did take out his gun and kill the cop that was in there with him.

Another incident happened where a guy was locked up for something like carjacking or armed robbery and (in theory) was searched before he was placed in a police car. Guy sitting in the car is cuffd behind, excellent start. This big old linebacker boohoos all the way to the jail auto tut my hands hurtling my wrists hurt, I'm a diabetic, I'm a only child, can I please, please, pretty please be cuffed in front like those way-accurate and super entertaining police shows? With sugar on top? Cops says no. Good cop so far. Gets to jail, walks prisoner up the stairs and CRASH out falls the gun from prisoner's waist onto the metal stairs. I guess with loose pants and your hands 'tied up' in cuffs, he couldn't hold his gun up like he usually did (easy way to spot guns in ghetto, true). Big fail by the officer. He wasn't suspended or fired, I know that. What ever discipline he did get involved re-training on prisoner searches and probably something like loss of leave or whatever.

So yeah, this stuff does happen. Way too often. This type of incident is completely preventable.

Originally posted by TheLieWeLive
reply to post by Chamberf=6

 

Handcuffed man shot in back police car

It sure did. Back in July. I at first thought this was the same story.

edit on 5-12-2012 by TheLieWeLive because: (no reason given)

Me too, thought it was deja vu or that I had a premonition or something!

Originally posted by hawkiye
And you didn't even address the fact that it is near if not impossible to shoot yourself in the back of the head with your HANDS CUFFED BEHIND YOUR BACK never mind missing the gun in the search

Yeah, I thought I did, but I really didn't proofread too well, as I said, I just wrote a bunch and hit reply. Here ya go:

A lot of what I wrote was addressing handcuffing in front. I he was truly handcuffed to his rear then it's still possible
1) people are flexible; I have seen people who, handcuffed to their rear, can reach up with their hands and arms while still cuffed and scratch their own damn nose. No kidding. See, I always liked it better with them up front where I can see that they are pulling that whacky stunt
2) Back to my biggest point which was Cops Become Complacent (nice way of saying lazy) - sure he was handcuffed in the rear? Did anyone other than the cops see it before they took the cuffs off to render aid?
3) nice smooth plastic seat in the back of the cage car, it's easy to slip the gun out o your pants and onto the seat. I would guess that he slicked to the floor with the gun on the seat behind him and that is how he hit the back of his head.

The other thing that we are missing here..... This kid LIVED. Well, for a time. He was conscious at the hospital. This was probably a really bad shot. Like the kind of shot you would have done trying to kill yourself while handcuffed behind your bak at some awkward yet desperate angle in the back of the police car. True executions don't leave many survivors. Just sayin.

Clearly, we agree that this needs investigated. I never argued you that point!

I agree with the Otter 100%. You nailed it buddy, Hope he wasn't at a gunfighter station. He'll surely get slack for his search and seizure conduct.

reply to post by TheOtter

Well, you know I feel bad about saying that now. I've mentioned before I come from a law enforcement household and I ought to know better than to even say it. I'm a little bent out of shape over that whole thing in Arkansas awhile back with the kid in the back of the patrol car which was mentioned earlier. Having happened recently and so similarly...well, I hadn't really thought about the mindset you present on this.

Yeah, it makes sense the cop may have simply made the most cursory of frisks and visual 'pat downs' ..whatever someone wants to call it... so he could maintain good talking terms with a troubled kid while still getting him isolated in what ought to have been a safe time out spot. Hmmm... Tragedy all around on this recent one when I start really thinking about it in that light. It's also nice to hear a Police perspective occasionally. I know there are a number of cops on here who are members and just happen to do that for a living...It's always interesting to hear that side of things.

wow this is crazy, this sounds questionable, so did the other incident that happened just like this. in my opinion & just my assumption, i think he was murdered by the officers. i know many would say im jumping to conclusions & i have no evidence, but hear me out. ive been arrested before, & have had handcuffs on. its hard enough tryna to reach in your pocket or sit in the cop car handcuffed. & they expect me to believe he shot himself in the head while handcuffed? cmon now.. i smell fish.

Don't try this at home, but you could use the thumb to pull the trigger while leaning forward with your head tipped back. If you practice with it, you'll be able to execute yourself quite neatly. If you don't, you'll blow off the back of your head and possibly send shards into your brain. Either way, you're gonna end up in a messy situation, whether you live to tell about it or not.

But looking over this thread, it looks like there's been WAAAAYYYY too many cops making mistakes. Whether it's a lazy pat-down or something far more nefarious, there's something seriously wrong here. There's absolutely no way in hell any of those people should have had a firearm anywhere near their person while in the backseat of a cruiser. Every time I've been searched, there's no way I could have hidden a gun from them. No way. If they got shot, the cop either did a horrible job of keeping them safe, or they fired the gun themselves.

These cops are the trusted guardians of our cities in these troubled times. If the police are failing this badly, who can we rely on?

The suspect could have simply slid the cuffs under his bottom thus making himself cuffed in the front where he could have easily shot himself. He could have also did it from the rear cuff position by being a regular everyday flexible teen. Either way it is not hard to conceal a firearm in the taint region and walk with your upper thighs clenched tightly so as to hold the weapon up. Officers are wrong no matter how they do things so I dont know what people expect of them when every action is the wrong action to someone.

Originally posted by GringoCorona1176
The suspect could have simply slid the cuffs under his bottom thus making himself cuffed in the front where he could have easily shot himself. He could have also did it from the rear cuff position by being a regular everyday flexible teen. Either way it is not hard to conceal a firearm in the taint region and walk with your upper thighs clenched tightly so as to hold the weapon up. Officers are wrong no matter how they do things so I dont know what people expect of them when every action is the wrong action to someone.

You guys need to read the article before commenting. He shot himself in the back of the head therefore no way he slipped the cuffs around to the front, and the gun is pointing the wrong way with ones hands behind their back to hit oneself in the head...

reply to post by hawkiye


I've been searched by cops before, and I've been hand-cuffed and put into the back of a police car a few times in my life.

This is the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

What kind of gun was it? No one has asked that question yet, and I often wonder why specific questions like this aren't even asked.

There are a lot of different sized firearms out there (I'm not an expert), and the size of this one should be an important piece of information to include in a news article, don't you think.

Handcuffed student shoots himself in the head in the back of a police car after officers took him in

The FIRST question that popped into my head was, "What kind of weapon was involved in this incident?"

How is this even possible? As someone here already explained even if they had a gun, being handcuffed while trying to shoot yourself is hard. Possible the very best you can do is have the gun pointed at an angle and you would either hit the bottom of your head or some part of your back

Even if you purposely tilted your head you could have the same results

reply to post by Edgar806


Did you read the article? The kid's still alive.

So he didn't have a clean shot, obviously.