Officer Keith Baggett has been issued a reprimand and subsequently returned to work after an internal investigation cleared him of wrongdoing in the shooting death of 21-year-old Chavis Carter, THV News reports. Carter died of a gunshot wound to the head while handcuffed in the back of a Jonesboro, Ark., police car, in what the Arkansas State Crime Lab has deemed a suicide.
The managing partner of the Cochran firm, which represents Carter's family, said yesterday that it has launched its own investigation and chastised law-enforcement authorities for their handling of the case, saying, "The Jonesboro Police have reinstated both officers that displayed such a high degree of negligence that it led to the loss of a life of a young man in their custody."
"It continues to become abundantly clear that the Jonesboro Police Department was not only negligent the night of the shooting; it is also seemingly clear that they are becoming negligent in their investigation of the events that happened on July 28, 2012. This appears to be becoming more and more like an attempt to clear two officers of any wrongdoing than to discover the actual facts of what occurred that night young Chavis Carter lost his life."
Irwin points to the absence of gun residue tests and missing audio and video provided by the Jonesboro Police Department, as well as selectively edited witness interviews released to the public.
"We know they have not released all the information they have related to this case," Irwin said. "We know they did not complete gun residue testing on Chavis. We know they selectively chose sections of interviews to be released to the public instead of releasing the full interviews that could have helped the public better understand what happened. What happened leading up to him being taken into custody? What happened to the video? What happened to the audio? What has happened with the investigation since then?"
Read more at THV News.