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Subscribe to RSSUpdated at 6:47 p.m. ET: A handcuffed Houston-area high school student shot himself in the head Wednesday while in the back of a police car, officials said.
The 17-year-old student was rushed to Ben Taub Hospital. He was in the intensive care unit after undergoing surgery, school officials said.
No one else was hurt.
The incident began when police were called to North Shore Senior High School in unincorporated Harris County to investigate a report of a student with a firearm, said Capt. Jon Moore with the Harris County Constable Precinct 3.
The student was searched, handcuffed behind his back and placed in the back of a patrol car but apparently still had a gun, Moore said.
The student then shot himself, Galena Park Independent School District officials said.
District spokesman Jonathan Frey gave the following account:
This morning at North Shore Senior High School, a student was arrested. He was searched, handcuffed, and placed in the back of a police car. While in the car, the student retrieved a hidden gun and shot himself. Paramedics were called and quickly arrived on scene. He was transported to the hospital still conscious when he left. His family accompanied him to the hospital.
Students at North Shore Senior High School remain safe. Counselors are available for students as needed.
In a follow-up email to NBC News, Frey said the gun was apparently hidden well enough to evade detection when the student was frisked prior to being placed in the patrol car.
The Harris County Sheriff's Office will investigate the shooting, Moore said.
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In July, an Arkansas man fatally shot himself while handcuffed in the back of a police car. Officials say Chavis Carter, 21, committed suicide even though he was handcuffed from behind and had been searched twice for weapons. He had been picked up by authorities during a traffic stop in Jonesboro, Ark.
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I still don't see how you could shoot yourself in the head if your hands were cuffed behind your back. I think a lot more info needs to come out.
The Assumption that Police give a Dam if a young person shoots themself is wrong ...they only care if THEY get shot..... Once Arrested They are responsible ...But There not... never have been.. Never will be ...Hope the Family sues for MIllions... A young person with a gun is a cry for help ..somethings wrong where are the Adults who Can guide ...Help... Not A POLICE OFFICER ...........far from a Adult.
Right, let's blame the officer for failing to save this reject from himself. If the search was any more aggressive, all you detractors would be decrying the violation of his civil liberties. Can't we just call it what it is...mother nature trying to throw a little chlorine into the gene pool of life? The bigger question is: how the heck did he miss? Evene with handcuffs on...I mean, come on! He ought to be sentence to shooting lessons.
Reject, really, pretty cold and mean spirited. A high school student arrested and already condemned as a reject. A kid marked as worthless, wow. should have gone to the source, the kid is a minor and was depressed. Apprehended in a restroom. So judgemental, sorry for you.
And if the kid was a family member or friend of yours, Happster....same comment?
If the kid had a death-wish, why not take a cop with you? Or at least try, given he was handcuffed behind his back.
Happster, you are a one cheerful fellow. Why so negative?
Umm....scratch that 2nd sentence / question. That don't sound right. But keep the 1st one. My bad.
There has to be more to this. It smells bad and seems very difficult to do. Where did he have that 2nd gun? I know some guns are pretty small and concealable.
Where did these guys work before becoming police officers the TSA?
That's pretty good, :)
Hmmm let's see if you're handcuffed from behind, how in God's name can you raise your hand up high enough to shoot yourself in the head? Are these the same magic bullets that killed Kennedy?
There was a video demonstration done when this happend in AR. An officer was placed in handcuffs behind his back, pulled a dummy pistol from his waistband, and put it to his head. It is completely possible. My question is this. Was there a camera in the patrol car that would show how this kid shot himself to try and gain knowledge from it and find a way to keep it from happening again?
Actually it would be easy, you have enough room for some movement, just enough to reach for the gun and/or work it out slowly, then aim the gun up along your back sort of and tilt your head backwards and fire. Why the officer didn't recognize any movement in the back. There ain't much leg room in the back of those things to move around. I use to date a state trooper which is how I know :)
He was shot by the cops, why I do not know. I would advise his family to have someone with him round the clock and keep the police out of the room.
Dawgfan, if you are handcuffed from behind, sitting in the back of a cramped police vehicle, already been searched where does this magic pistol appear from??
HarleMan,
It would be a two fold occurrence.
1. The firearm would need to be small enough to easily miss. I have a .38 special snubbie that's
all of 5-6 inches long and about 1.5-2 inches wide which makes it a very good concealed carry
weapon. My grandfather used the very same weapon in his 32 years as a Special Agent in the
FBI.
2. The officer may have either missed checking the small of the student's back for a weapon or
didn't actually feel it .
I normally carry a 1911 as my concealed weapon, and you would have absolutely no idea I had that large of a pistol on my waiste if you were standing next to me at the grocery store. Like I said before, there is a video which details how it is possible for a person that is handcuffed behind the back to be able to retreive a concealed firearm and shoot themselves.
I guess if he was professionally trained to do this as cops probably are since they can get in tough situations in rare occasions I could see it, but this kid could not be trained to retrieve a concealed weapon and then cleanly shoot himself in the head in my opinion.
How long does that take, was he being watched, wouldn't he have to be making extreme body movements to do this? Just questions, all will be answered eventually.
DawgFan, in the Arkansas case, why did they needed to do an reactment? The camera was on the whole time and they say that there was no record of a gun being fired. They described everything that the camera caught including him in the back seat, but magically there is nothing showing him shooting himself. Also, there was no gunshot residue on his hands. A lefthanded man shooting himself in the right temple while his hands were still cuffed behind his back. And you people want to believe this?
Also, on the local news in Houston, they are saying that the guy has been shot in the back of his head while hands are cuffed behind his back. How much can you suspend reality? Also, were there no metal detections in the school? In Houston, I found it hard to believe that there weren't any.
The solution is simple. There should be no restrictions on ownership of guns, but full liability should rest on the manufacturers. Then private industry would suddenly find the ability to keep guns out of the hands of criminals.
So if that's the case, then hammer manufacturers would be responsible for any deaths that result from the use of a hammer to kill, and they would also be held liable for construction defects when used during the course of construction?
Dawgfan-4710266
Don't forget the store that sold it :)
Melis-a,
Bat manufacturers would be responsible for any injuries sustained by fans in the bleechers, liable for a team that loses a game, and yes the store or distributor would also be liable. You know, we have to redistribute the wealth all while lawyers are licking their lips at the amount of suits they could file and make money off of.
Not to mention the fact that we would never again get a free set of Ginsu Knives with our TV purchase of junk.
Dawgfan, GUNS are made to KILL only (injure if you like).
Stop the stupid BS comparison to things intended for "non-violent" consumer use.
Raidaz--but for all that "made to kill" stuff, out of the nearly 200 million guns in circulation in the US, fewer than 10,000 were used to commit murder last year. that's what, .005% of all guns being used to kill . . . . . . .yep, then maybe, just maybe, the other 99.995% of guns out there fulfill some other purpose for their owners.
If guns are made "only" to kill or wound, how about archery or fencing? Don't they serve the same purpose?
Obviously, guns are used in sports just like sword, bows or javelins,
Shooting is an official competition in Olympic, NCAA, IPSC, PPC, IDPA and many other sport events.
If you claimed guns are only made to kill,
Do you also against archery, martial art, or fencing as well?
I stated GUNS. By far, MOST killing of people is done with GUNS. Not archery, martial arts(?), fencing, bow/arrow or swords - things very rarely used to kill; and no, they're not the same. GUNS may be used for target practice or some sporting events, but who's complaining about that? No people die, usually.
Hunting is fine, if you're eating your kill, no different than fishing for food, IMO.
BTW, I'm not advocating a ban or anything, so don't think that, if you are. I own guns. It is NOT the gun, but the people who use them to kill other people. Most murderers go for guns, not the other items, because they are stand off weapons, with multiple rounds to expend.
Sure he did, just like the young man in Arkansas, don't believe a word of the self-inflicted story. Something is very rotten in Texas as well as Arkansas. Hope he recovers, family need to be with him at all times, so that the job stays unfinished.
Hey, I know you. You were in a movie. "Conspiracy Theory" wasn't it?
his family should have been with him when he was growing up perhaps then he wouldnt have made such a poor life choice. i just hope this idiot doesnt end up a carrot and the taxpaying producers in this country have to pay for his diaper changes and feeding times.
@skyparrot,
If he does recover just think an under aged thug had two guns, in school, for what purpose? He will get more and use them again hopefully on himself again and not an innocent person or a police officer which everyone is quickly to say it is his fault. He missed a gun and should not have but it happened and thankfully the thug is the only one hurt. Honestly if police are called to a school because a thug has a gun would you think he had two guns? And yes he is a thug!! What if your kid went to the same school? How would you feel then? Too much blame be responsible for your own words and actions! THUGS!!!
bizzare. only in the u s of a.
The student was searched, handcuffed behind his back and placed in the back of a patrol car but apparently still had a gun, Moore said.
Keystone Cops?
IMPOSSIBLE!!!!
On the hand lets see a video of it to see if it actually happened that way. Are you just going to take the police departments word for it.
I can't stop laughing. Great story!
This isn't impossible!
Liberace had a Magnum hidden every time he played the piano... same hiding spot...
He was probably prejudice against the black keys :) I was just having fun, but he did have people after him from his life style so I'm told.
Hmm, maybe we need more homosexual police officers.
I bet they would do a more through search.
Once again old news pulled out and shown as present news. This happened months ago when i first read it on this site. Either this is some sort of research project to tell if the memory reducer drugs in our food and air are working, or nbc cant find enough happening in the world to report on so they add old news as filler.
Then why are U reading and POSTING about it, dn? Nothing new to do?
Memory reducer drugs? Paranoid.
There's a song that goes: I always fell like....somebody's watching meeeee, and I have no privacy.....
You idiot, can't you see that this happened today? The other story was in Arkansas and this is Houston.
the truth is, when things like this happen, as fishy as it smells, the types of comments posted here, and their tone. want change until little white boys start shooting them selves in the head while in handcuffs, and arms down, and behind them. so chill out it was the life of another black teen. no big deal. the cops hands will always be clean when its a black person.
are you guys satisfied.?
What? Again?
A most unsettling trend, this new form of suicide... suicidal kids choosing not to shoot it out...they just off themselves while handcuffed in the back of police cars.
As simple as it would be to video every moment of every arrest with onboard cameras, (and provide instant defense for the policemen ) I think this should just about the the last of them.
I, for one, couldn't care less. Hopefully he'll die and there will be one less POS running around in society.
I, for two, wouldn't care if that POS turns out to be YOU!
The first thing I thought was "this is a repeat of the same scenario from Arkansas a couple months ago". The second thing I thought was "what did the kid do that necessitated him being in the cop car in the first place?" Third thing I thought was "The kid must have known he was going (back) to jail, or that he was definitely guilty to do that to himself." Maybe it's better that we don't have to go through the trial and incarceration, appeals and such ad nauseum.
This is yet ANOTHER reason people don't trust cops. Let me guess: They (Law Enforcement) don't have cameras in the cruisers to monitor suspects in the back seat? No, didn't think so. Just take a cops word for it, for they are ALL honest, right? We ALL know the answer to that one.
These type cops are just giving citizens MORE reason to shoot at them, before cops can shoot the citizen, right or wrong. Now, cops and citizens are paranoid of each other. Bad combination, because they both will die.
Sadly, the GOOD cops will most likely be the ones that die because of this sh!t.
The camera in the Arkansas case caught everything except the sound of gun fire and the act itself!
Most incompetent police force ever.
Why are there so many STUPID cops? I know a couple of reasons are many get little if any good training and many are recruited from the lowest IQ levels.
Actually, shooting one’s self in the head while cuffed would
be difficult but it is certainly possible. You seem to forget the bullets
travel after leaving the barrel of the gun. If you aim the gun upward and lean
your head back it is quite possible that the bullet might find its intended
target. Now getting into the police car with a gun on your person seems to
indicate that a proper pat down was not done.
Oh well, at least he didn't kill anyone else. You want to kill yourself, go right ahead!
If this family gets a dime it would be too much. Its time to stop blaming police officers for what blacks do to themselves.
Fair enough, but it also would be better if the Cops can PROVE IT, without a doubt, through video in the cruisers. Fair?
Do you trust all cops? I sure as hell don't. Most are GOOD, but they have badasses and lyingasses in all Law Enforcement.