Rasheem Carter’s family say he was lynched and dismembered
Autopsy photos of Rasheem Carter’s death are shown at a news conference. (Screenshot from a press conference.)
The family of a black man whose remains were found a month after his disappearance in Mississippi believe he was lynched and dismembered and have called on the US Department of Justice to investigate the death and a text he sent his mother, in which he said that white men in trucks tried to kill him.
Rasheem Carter’s head was severed from his body, his spinal cord was severed from his head and his body parts were scattered after the 25-year-old went missing in October, family lawyer Ben Crump said at a news conference.
The Smith County Sheriff’s Department said his body was found Nov. 2 in a wooded area near Taylorsville, about 63 miles southeast of Jackson, Mississippi. Carter was reported missing on October 2 in Laurel, about 22 miles southeast of where his remains were found. Initially, officials said they had no reason to believe foul play was involved, but also said the case was being investigated further with the help of state investigators and the FBI.
The coroner’s report did not specifically state that Carter was dismembered, CNN reported. Two dozen bones and fragments were found scattered across two acres, and evidence found during the autopsy suggested animals had looted Carter’s remains, the outlet reported.
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation reportedly said the medical examiner could not determine a cause of death based on the condition of the remains.
Smith County Sheriff Joel Houston told CNN he would welcome a federal investigation into the case. He said investigators found no evidence to support claims Carter was being followed.
“To date we have no evidence of foul play, but everything is on the table,” Houston told CNN. “Until we turn every stone over, it’s still an open investigation.”
Crump called it a shameful, evil act.
“Someone murdered Rasheem Carter,” he said. “And we can’t let them get away with it. There’s nothing natural about that. That calls for justice.”
His mother, Tiffany Carter, said her son texted her on October 1, saying that “three truckloads of white people” were trying to kill him.
“Me and the owner of this company disagree mom,” she read from the text, without identifying anyone. “If something happened to me, he is responsible for it. I’m too smart mom. He got these guys to kill me.”
She said she directed him to go to the police and he did, but she allegedly didn’t help him.
“What we have is a Mississippi lynching, a Mississippi lynching in 2022,” Crump said.
Attorney Carlos Moore, who joined Crump and the family at the press conference, compared the case to that of Emmett Till, the black teenager who was kidnapped and lynched after being accused of insulting a white woman in Mississippi in 1955.
“I’ve been a Mississippi for 46 years of my life, and I’ve never heard of such a terrible crime,” he said. “I thought we made progress in Mississippi. But we are living in the Jim Crow 2.0 era and there seems to be a rise in white supremacy. There is no reason Rasheem Carter should have been killed. He was dutifully and profitably employed just to try to support his young child and ends up dead, hunted by what we believe is a white supremacist, a lynch mob.”
Carter’s mother said he was more than a son.
“He acted like my best friend, my brother, my uncle,” she said. “He was just a man who wanted to do what he had to do to make a difference in the lives of others.”
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https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/family-of-missing-black-man-found-dead-believe-he-was-lynched-and-dismembered-call-on-doj-to-investigate/ Rasheem Carter’s family say he was lynched and dismembered
