From [HERE] Police in Arkansas released a video reconstruction Tuesday meant to show how Chavis Carter could have shot himself in the head while he was handcuffed in the back of a police car.  In the video, an officer played the part of Carter, 21, a Southaven, Miss., man who died from a gunshot wound to the temple on July 28 despite being frisked twice by Jonesboro police officers.  Carter was black and both of the officers who arrested him are white, a dynamic that has generated suspicion among some members of the city's black community.

The officers stopped a truck in which Carter was riding after they received a report of a suspicious vehicle driving up and down a residential street. They arrested Carter after learning he had an outstanding arrest warrant related to a drug charge in Mississippi. Police also alleged Carter had marijuana.

In producing the video, the agency used the same type of handcuffs that were used on Carter and the same model of handgun found with Carter after he died, a .380-caliber Cobra semi-automatic. An officer of similar height and weight to Carter - 5 feet 8 inches, 160 pounds - sat in the back of a cruiser, leaned over and was able to lift the weapon to his head and reach the trigger. (Chavis was left handed and police claim while handcuffed he shot himself in the right temple. It is unknown whether the police actor was left or right handed. Police claim to have a need to hold onto the dashcam video.).

The Blue Arkansas Blog made the following observations: Jonesboro’s police chief Michael Yates is saying a few bizarre things to the national media about the already bizarre death of Chavis Carter:

YATES: For the average person that’s never been in handcuffs, that’s never been around inmates and people in custody would react exactly the same way that you just did, about how can that be possible. Well the fact of it is, it’s very possible and it’s quite easy.

The police have said repeatedly that the dashboard camera and witnesses place the officers outside the car at the time of the shooting. But Yates told CNN that the dashboard video does not actually show the moment the gun was fired, nor does it capture Carter sitting in the back seat.

That’s interesting, because earlier Yates said the whole thing was “bizarre” and “defies logic at first glance”.  He also said:

YATES: There’s no indication of any projectiles coming from outside the vehicle. We’ve reviewed the dashcam video and as late as today managed to have some witnesses come forward that observed the incident from start to finish. And their statements tend to support that whatever transpired in the back of that police car transpired in the back with the officers in a different location.