Rasheed Carter (Image source: YouTube/YTY The Conversation)
The family of Rasheem Carter is calling for a federal probe after he was found decapitated and mutilated in the back woods of Mississippi, yet the local police department claimed there was “no foul play.”
Carter, 25, of Fayette, Mississippi, claimed to his mother that he was being targeted by White men in October 2022 from the city where he worked at in Taylorsville. He was listed as missing days later after no one heard from him. Carter’s body remains were found about a month later in the woods of Laurel, Mississippi, on Nov. 2, 2022 – about a 30-minute drive away from Taylorsville – with his head separated from his body and his spinal cord in yet another spot, according to ABC News.
After being dissatisfied with the findings of the local police department, the family sought out famed attorney Benjamin Crump. They convened at the state capitol in Jackson on Tuesday, March 14 to petition the U.S. Department of Justice to step in and take over the investigation.
Meanwhile, Smith County Sheriff Joel Houston doubled down on its earlier determination that no foul play was involved in Carter’s death and that the evidence “didn’t suggest anything,” according to NBC News.
“Nothing is being swept under the rug,” Houston said Tuesday. “There’s nothing to hide.”
Crump emphatically disagreed with Houston and decried that the department is allegedly trying to sweep Carter’s death under the rug.
“One thing is for certain: This was not a natural killing. This was not a natural death. This represents a young man who was killed,” attorney Ben Crump said during a press conference Monday, referring to the findings of an autopsy report by the Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office.
Crump is incredulous that the sheriff’s department released the following statement after Carter’s body was found, saying that it “had no reason to believe foul play was involved” on its Facebook page:
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation has entered the investigation but referred the media to the Smith County Sheriff’s Office for further information. So far, the Sheriff has not responded to repeated inquiries.
The local NAACP, however, had plenty to say about Carter’s body being scattered about the woods.
“Clearly Rasheem’s death was not a natural death,” Ricky McDonald, president of the Jefferson County NAACP chapter, said at the press conference. “After Rasheem was found shortly after law enforcement there says that it was no foul play. How can it not be foul play when his body was dismembered? How can it not be foul play when his body parts was scattered all over the land in which he was found?”
Check out “The Conversation” below for a more in-depth media report on Carter’s death.
