Police release footage from ‘backseat suicide’ traffic stop

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Police in Jonesboro, Arkansas have released more footage from the traffic stop that culminated in the alleged suicide of a young man who sat handcuffed in a police car.

But according to the Associated Press, the new video, shot from the officers’ dashboard camera, shows footage taken after 21-year-old Chavis Carter was found dead in the back of the vehicle last month.

“There’s still nothing in there about what actually happened with Chavis,” said attorney Benjamin Irwin, who is representing Carter’s family, prior to the release of the new footage.

In the video, Carter can be seen leaving a white pickup truck and being searched without incident, though something did fall on the ground, before being led away from the frame. Two other men are shown being questioned and handcuffed, but they would later be released. The video ends after they drive away in the truck.

The new footage was released after a previous video stopped before Carter was found with a gunshot wound to his right temple. In the new video, an unseen man says, “He was breathing a second ago,” presumably referring to Carter. As an ambulance pulls up, someone says, “I patted him down. I don’t know where he had it hidden.”

Earlier this week, police had also released a reenactment they say shows how Carter, who had been put in the car after no weapons were found despite being searched twice, could have pulled out a gun and shot himself in the head.

Some footage from the traffic stop, posted by the Associated Press and ABC News, can be seen below.