How could handcuffed suspect shoot himself?

Did he commit suicide? According to police, Carter somehow managed to get a gun and fired a single shot into his head. Just how the police officer who searched Carter was able to find what amounted to a dime bag of pot but missed a small-caliber handgun is a mystery to a lot of people.

So, too, is how Carter could have shot himself in the head, although "his hands were still cuffed behind his back," according to the police report. His mother, Teresa Carter, told a Memphis, Tenn., television station that police said her son was shot in the right temple. But, she said, Carter was left handed.

It is, of course, theoretically possible the 21-year-old was an ambidextrous guy whose fingers were nimble enough to pull off a nearly impossible bit of marksmanship with a gun that a cop overlooked while searching him. Or, failing that kind of "Ripley's Believe It or Not" scenario, the possibility of police foul play has to be seriously considered.

During an interview with national television network HLN, Jonesboro police chief Michael Yates tried to have it both ways. He said what happened to Carter was "definitely bizarre and it defies logic at first glance, so we're actively trying to determine how that happened." But then, when he was asked why cops listed Carter's death as a suicide, Yates said: "It appears that's what it is. ... We've reviewed the dash-cam video and as late as today ... had some witnesses come forward who observed the incident from start to finish, and their statements tend to support" the cops' contention that they had nothing to do with Carter's death.

So why hasn't the police department released the videotapes from the two police cars?