How did 21-year-old Chavis Carter get shot in the head while handcuffed in a police car?

think-progress:

You probably don’t know anything yet about Chavis Carter, but you should:

Carter, who died at the hospital, was in the passenger seat of a pickup truck that was pulled over by police just before 10 pm,reports WREG. According to Officer Keith Baggett who was on the scene, Officer Ron Marsh found “some marijuana” and several new plastic baggies when he searched Carter.

When they ran his information through dispatch, they found that he was wanted on a warrant in Mississippi, where he lived. The cops then handcuffed him, searched him again, and put him in the back of the patrol car. While Baggett searched the vehicle, he claims he heard “a loud thump with a metallic sound” on his trunk and saw Marsh motion to him.

The thumping noise, according to the cops, was Carter shooting himself in the head.

Read the full account at ThinkProgress.