© AFP Photo / Sean Gardner
The release of an autopsy report in Louisiana is raising new questions about the unusual shooting death of a 22-year-old black male who died earlier this year in a police car while his hands were cuffed behind his back.
RT reported earlier this year that police in Iberia Parish, LA said Victor White III died in early March after he fatally shot himself while handcuffed in the back of a squad car. White had reportedly been apprehended for possession of drugs, and was
searched no fewer than two times before being cuffed and placed in the backseat of a police vehicle.
According to the police report from the time, White uncovered a gun while in the car and shot himself in the back.
According to a coroner's report just recently obtained by
NBC News, however, White died from a
gunshot wound that entered his body in the chest. Nevertheless, Dr. Carl Ditch wrote in the report that White was capable of firing the shot while cuffed "
due to his body habitus" and has agreed to rule the death a suicide.
Hannah Rappleye, a reporter for NBC, compared the coroner's story with the official police report from March in an article published by the outlet this week.
"White was shot in the front, not the back. The bullet entered his right chest and exited under his left armpit. White was left-handed, according to family members. According to the report, the forensic pathologist found gunshot residue in the wound, but not the sort ofstipplingthat a close-range shot can sometimes produce. He also found abrasions on White's face," she wrote. "And yet, despite the contradictions - and
even though White's hands were never tested for gunpowder residue - the Iberia Parish coroner still supported the central contention of the initial police statement issued back in March."
"Although the decedent was handcuffed at the time with his hands to his back, due to his body habitus, the pathologist and investigators agree that he would have been able to manipulate the weapon to the point where the contact entrance wound was found," Ditch wrote.
The deceased's father, Rev. Victor White II, told NBC that he had his doubts about the coroner's report.
"You can't make me understand," he said. "You can't make me understand how my son took his left hand, when he was handcuffed behind the back, and shot himself. I don't believe a thing they're saying at this point."
Comment: Kudos to both China and Russia for taking positive steps to eliminate GMO crops which pose serious risks. GM crops and their associated herbicides can harm birds, insects, amphibians, marine ecosystems, and soil organisms. They reduce bio-diversity, pollute water resources, and are unsustainable. GMOs do not increase yields, and work against feeding a hungry world. Whereas sustainable non-GMO agricultural methods used in developing countries have conclusively resulted in yield increases of 79% and higher, GMOs do not, on average, increase yields at all.