Police say teen shot self in head — while hands cuffed behind back

[DonViejo]

Source: Salon

Police say teen shot self in head — while hands cuffed behind back

In yet another case of defying the limits of physiology, 17-year-old Jesus Huerta died in Durham police custody

NATASHA LENNARD

:::snip:::

Via local station WNCT9:

A Durham teen [17-year-old Jesus Huerta] died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, Durham Police Chief Jose Lopez said…

“I know that it is hard for people not in law enforcement to understand how someone could be capable of shooting themselves while handcuffed behind the back,” Lopez said. “While incidents like this are not common, they unfortunately have happened in other jurisdictions in the past.”

Huerta’s family released a statement following the press conference held by Lopez. The family of Huerta said the press conference did not release any new information to the public.

“How did Jesús end up dead in the parking lot at police headquarters in these circumstances? Searched. Handcuffed behind the back. How is it even possible to shoot oneself?” the statement reads.

###

Read more: http://www.salon.com/2013/12/12/police_teen_shot_self_in_head_while_hands_cuffed_behind_back/

[valerief]

1. Another magic bullet. nt

[Heather MC]

12. Back and to the left

Back and to the left

[Arkansas Granny]

2. It just seems impossible that someone who has been searched and handcuffed can retrieve

a hidden gun and then go through the gyrations and contortions necessary to shoot themselves in the head.

Here's a link to two similar stories from 2012:

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/05/15702942-police-handcuffed-high-school-student-shoots-self-in-back-of-police-car

[Historic NY]

4. It happens more often than not...but something happened in the police car..

it struck a few cars in the lot.

http://www.wncn.com/story/24006327/17-year-old-who-died-in-police-custody-was-riverside-student

[TroglodyteScholar]

19. "It happens more often than not"

[Historic NY]

21. Poor searchs....

guns missed.

[sharp_stick]

3. It can be done and it has been

If it was, an autopsy will show it pretty much immediately.

If he managed to get a gun with his hands behind his back and began trying to turn it around in his hands pulling the trigger while it was pointed up at his head it would be pretty easy to have an accident.

It came up in my pathology rotation in med school. The guy was manipulating the gun and had his head turned around as much as he possibly could to try and see what he was doing. Blew the front of his head off when he accidentally pulled the trigger.

If that happened the big question is, how in the hell did he manage to get a gun with his hands behind his back? Did he have it in his waistband and wasn't searched before being cuffed or did he manage to grab one lying around.

[AtheistCrusader]

6. Accident, or intentional suicide.

Still, that makes the officers negligent in failing to find the gun. That's pretty bad. Could have gotten one of them, or anyone nearby killed as well.

Training, training training.

(And an impartial investigation, just to ensure the shooting was in fact done by the deceased, and not a criminal act by an officer)

[Mysterysouppe]

10. If you believe this story, I have a bridge I can sell you.

[AtheistCrusader]

11. It's certainly not impossible.

He may have been trying to get rid of a gun that he had on his person, and accidentally shot himself. He may have committed suicide.

It may seem far fetched, but consider the far-fetched nature of a cop assuming he or she could get away with executing a cuffed suspect secured in his or her patrol car. If a cop wants to kill someone, doubtless he or she can engineer SLIGHTLY less suspicious circumstances.

[Doctor_J]

36. so they didn't disarm him before cuffing him???

[AtheistCrusader]

37. They may not have found it.

Frisking isn't foolproof, but also, it suggests some level of negligence or poor ability/training, if he didn't find a gun.

[Blue_Tires]

7. The cops will be cleared no matter WHAT the autopsy shows...

and don't think all coroners are on the level, either...Remember the first autopsy of Kendrick Johnson said his death was a self-inflicted "accident"

[Swede Atlanta]

13. Agree...

The police are ALWAYS innocent. They are the "teflon team". We must never hold police accountable for their actions because it undermines our totalitarian police state.

[TroglodyteScholar]

20. Agree

Even if an investigation shows with certainty that the official story is impossible, all the boys in blue will live free to abuse and/or kill plenty more "perps" (that's cop talk for someone who isn't in law enforcement).

[struggle4progress]

25. That's not true in NC:

Randall Kerrick, N.C. officer, charged with shooting unarmed .. Jonathan Ferrell
CBS News
September 16, 2013, 12: 28 PM

[jberryhill]

28. Gun ditched in car seat by previous suspect?

How would a gun get into the back seat of a police car?

Who rides in the back seats of police cars?

[dipsydoodle]

5. Probably handcuffed himself after the shot.

[struggle4progress]

26. What do you know about how limber the kid was?

[Wolf Frankula]

8. Suicides Can Do Amazing Things

Reminds me of Salvador Allende, who shot himself with a submachine gun from across the room.

Wolf

[progressoid]

9. Like this one...

Also managed to shoot himself in the back of the head while handcuffed.

[olddad56]

14. It has happened before... or that excuse has been used before?

[PeoViejo]

15. A quote from Joseph Goebbels:

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/goebbelslie.html

[Turbineguy]

16. Fox News

probablby has that sign in letters a foot high.

[QuestForSense]

17. Ironic that Goebbels should actually be telling the truth.

So who will be investigating this crime? Why, the police of course! Will they be able to maintain the lie? Maybe. But if they fail and the case goes to trial, who will preside? Probably some Republican-appointed hack who will either dismiss the case for lack of evidence, or rule in favor of the plaintiffs. And it will all work like a charm, because (1) it has already been set up to work that way, (2) it has always worked, and (3) it probably always will. I say probably because I still have some optimism left. But while I'm never cynical about the truth, bullshit like this takes its toll.

[happyslug]

22. Goebbels understood propaganda/marketing

Last edited Fri Dec 13, 2013, 05:28 PM - Edit history (1)

Yes, the two words are more interchangeable then people like to think.

Anyway, they is a report of Hitler and Goebbels looking at Stalin's propaganda news reels, and joking to themselves how bad they were because Stalin did NOT understand propaganda. Goebbels made sure his propaganda NEVER fell into being stupid or worse, ineffective.

When Goebbels became head of "Propaganda" for the Third Reich, the mover studios of Germany made a movie showing how a young German kept on fighting for the Nazi till he was killed fighting for the Glory of Germany. On seeing the movie he told the movie makers he (Goebbels) never wanted to see trash like that again. Goebbels wanted GOOD propaganda movies, showing Nazism with people being happy, joyful etc. The hero has to live at the end of the movie and get the girl.

It is reported upon see Casablanca (you be surprise what you can pick up in a war, and what gets sent back to the Capital). Goebbels is reported to say it was one of the greatest propaganda movies ever. Casablanca followed Goebbels "Rules" for movies, first it was a movie people would go to see (mostly guys taking their wives or girlfriends to see, which means it is something SHE wants to see) and do NOT let the propaganda message get in the way of the story line OR be submerged by the story line. This is a typical boy meet girl, boy loses girl, boy and girl defeats bad guys, boy gets girl at the end. That is a good story line, one that has worked for centuries.

The propaganda line is the messages that the Nazis are evil, but smart that very dangerous and that we all must make sacrifices to defeat them. This back story is repeated over and over again in the story, it is the propaganda message the movie is sending. It is subtle enough for most people to miss it as something obvious, but it is a message people pick up and embrace after watching the movie. Watch Casablanca see how many time people have to endure hardship, people have to run risk to defeat the evil Nazis, what people do to defeat the Nazis, that even local bad boys (The local head of police, Renault and Syndy Greenstreet portray of the person who control all criminal activities, both end up helping Rick against the Nazis, the true evil in this movie) all work together to defeat the Nazis. Unity, Sacrifice, and enduring the threat of harm or even death must be endure to defeat the Nazis.

I bring this up, for that is Propaganda done right. Stalin did not know how to do it, the Communist propaganda news reels of the 1930s clearly shows this. On the other hand, Goebbels know how to do it, and so does the 1%, Remember that when dealing with the 1%, they know what they are doing to keep people loyal to them, even when it is NOT in those same people's best interests.

[QuestForSense]

23. Go ahead and bet the rent. You're speaking the Truth.

"Remember that when dealing with the 1%, they know what they are doing to keep people loyal to them, even when it is NOT in those same people's best interests."

[Theyletmeeatcake2]

38. It's always amazed me when people act against their own interests.....

Ok for charity etc. but to make some rich bastard more rich.....dunnow !!!

[TheKentuckian]

18. I can't believe folks are trying to pretend they believe this happy horseshit.

[struggle4progress]

33. Feel free to post whatever facts you actually know about this incident

[Th1onein]

34. I can't believe it, either.

They boldly lie now.

[struggle4progress]

24. ... Jesus Huerta ... was picked up on an outstanding second-degree trespassing charge from July

after family members in a 911 call reported concerns for his safety ...
Durham leaders will rely on SBI report after teen's police custody death
November 25

... Officer Samuel Duncan was transporting Jesus Huerta to police headquarters on West Chapel Hill Street shortly before 3 a.m. to pick up a warrant charging the teen with second-degree trespassing. When the officer got to the parking lot, he heard a loud noise in the car and jumped from the vehicle, police said. The patrol car rolled into a van and came to rest with Huerta in the back seat. "Based on the preliminary investigation, it does not appear that any Durham police officer fired a weapon during this incident," Police Chief Jose Lopez told reporters in a statement Tuesday morning ...
17-year-old dies in Durham police custody
Posted: November 19
Updated: 6:46 p.m. Tuesday

... Huerta’s older sister had called 911 to ask that police be on the lookout for him after he left home about 2 a.m. Duncan stopped Huerta about an hour later and took him into custody after discovering that the teenager had an outstanding warrant issued in July for second-degree trespassing. Huerta was found with another man, who gave a false name but was later identified as Jaime Perez, according to police. Perez was issued a citation for resist, delay and obstruct and then released ...
Durham police says teen shot self, family accuses officials of withholding facts
By Jim Wise
December 11, 2013

Durham Police Chief Jose Lopez said ... Jesus Huerta, 17, died of a self-inflicted gunshot would to the head in November. Lopez said a handgun was found in the car and that Huerta was still handcuffed from behind ... Chief Lopez said Huerta was searched by police prior to the shooting incident and the weapon was not detected ... "While incidents like this are not common, they unfortunately have happened in other jurisdictions in the past" ...
Police: NC teen fatally shot self in head while handcuffed
CBS News December 12, 2013, 3: 03 PM

[Th1onein]

27. Oinkers are really good at lying (and getting away with it)

[struggle4progress]

31. That seems to me just ugly broad-stroke bigotry

[struggle4progress]

29. ... A recording of the 911 call indicates that a sister called on her mother’s behalf

and said Huerta left the house because his mother had caught him using drugs. The caller, whose name is not revealed, said the family was worried because he once “tried to take his life,” according to the 911 recording. “One time, he wanted to jump from the window” because “he thinks his mother does not love him,” the caller told the dispatcher ...
Durham teen who died in patrol car suffered gunshot wound, according to 911 call
By Thomasi McDonald
November 20, 2013

[struggle4progress]

30. Durham police radio traffic indicates they considered Huerta a 'runaway'

Police officers inspect a Durham police cruiser in the parking lot of the Durham Police Dept. Tuesday, November 19, 2013 after a body was removed from the cruiser ...

By Thomasi McDonald
November 25, 2013

DURHAM — The teen who died in the back seat of a Durham police car last week was considered a runaway when he walked out of his mother’s apartment an hour earlier, according to a recording of police radio traffic made public Monday. The recording also indicated that police found Jesus Huerta, 17, near the intersection of Trinity and Washington streets, roughly two blocks from where he lived ... Just before 3 a.m. Tuesday, a police officer radioed emergency dispatchers to report “shots fired” in the headquarters parking lot, according to a recording of police radio traffic released last week. The officer then asked for medical assistance for a gunshot wound, “approximately 18-year-old male, not breathing,” according to the recording ...

http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/11/25/3407915/durham-police-radio-traffic-indicates.html

[struggle4progress]

32. Huerta family seeks FBI inquiry into Durham police

By Jim Wise
December 10, 2013

... Huerta’s mother and several other family members, along with Erica Scott Pacheco of Presente.org, an advocacy group, delivered a petition to the FBI’s Cary office Tuesday morning. According to Pacheco, the petition had more than 18,000 signatures ...

FBI spokeswoman Shelley Lynch said the bureau will review the information ...

“Jesus’s death is merely the tip of the iceberg in Durham. He is the second Latino man and third man of color to die in the presence of Durham police since July,” the petition states, referring to the fatal shootings by police of Jose Adan Cruz Ocampo, 33, on July 27, and Derek Deandre Walker, 26, Sept. 17. Ocampo was a suspect in a nonfatal stabbing; Walker was fatally shot after pointing his gun at police in a downtown standoff ...

http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/12/10/3450175/huerta-family-asks-fbi-to-probe.html

[KamaAina]

35. Again?!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014200362