Jan. 10. Photo: AP Photo/Gerry
Broome
A teenage suspect who died in
North Carolina while he was handcuffed in the back of a police car shot himself
in the head with a gun he hid from an officer, according to a police report
released on Friday.
Jesus Huerta died on November
19 after he was arrested on an outstanding warrant for trespassing. His family
had called authorities and reported that he ran away from home and requested
police search for him.
Huerta’s case triggered several
protests in recent months over police conduct in Durham. The release of the
report followed repeated calls from Huerta’s family for more details about the
circumstances of his death.
The preliminary results of the
Durham Police Department’s internal investigation indicate that an officer who
arrested and searched Huerta failed to find a gun he had hidden on him.
In presenting the report,
Deputy Police Chief Anthony Marsh used still photographs taken by Arkansas
police in a case there to illustrate how a suspect might be able to shoot
himself while handcuffed.
“Not only can it be done, it
has been done,” Marsh said.
Alexander Charns, a lawyer
representing Huerta’s family, dismissed the findings and called the report a
“whitewash wrapped in a cover-up.”
“The tiny truths in there are
intertwined with half-truths and misdirection,” he said in a statement.
According to the report, the
police officer who arrested Huerta told investigators he warned the teenager
several times to stop moving his handcuffed hands as he drove him back to
police headquarters.
The officer said he thought he
heard something rubbing against the car’s plastic seats and believed it was the
handcuffs, the report said.
As he pulled into police
headquarters, the officer then heard a shot and jumped out of the car.
The officer said he found
Huerta slumped over in the backseat and a semi-automatic .45-caliber pistol on
the floor, the report said. Huerta was pronounced dead at the scene.
The gun was traced to a pawn
shop in Georgia, the report said.
Police officials say they are
still investigating any possible wrongdoing by the officer, who was placed on
paid leave but is now doing administrative work. His car had a video camera
that was not on at the time of the incident, the report said.