Several days ago, while we were all laughing over the golden shower debacle with President-elect Trump, a young man who claimed to be suicidal, killed himself by shooting himself in the head. The crazy part of this is the fact that he was handcuffed and in the back of a police car when the shooting occurred.
Zachary Anam was arrested by the Austin Police Department for shoplifting and was taken to the station for fingerprinting and to check for other outstanding warrants. During the car ride to the station, the assailant expressed that he was having suicidal thoughts and was on the verge of hurting himself. This was when he pulled out a gun.
The police pulled the car over and, for six minutes, attempted to talk the young man out of pulling the trigger. Unfortunately, their attempts were futile, and the man died after fighting for his life in a local hospital. Police Chief Brian Manley stated:
“If this individual had chosen to remove that weapon and fire it at the officer instead, without saying something, we could be discussing a very different incident here today.”
Due to questions of how the man got a gun into the police car in the first place and whether police tried to help him when he expressed suicidal thoughts has caused an internal investigation of the case. Dash cam footage has been pulled from the police cruiser and is currently under review.
This shooting is not the first that has raised eyebrows as did the 2012 case of Chavis Carter who was reportedly searched twice but shot himself in the right temple despite being left handed and handcuffed in the back of a police car. In 2013 Jesus Huerta, according to Durham North Carolina Coroners, shot himself in the mouth even though he was found with both of his hands handcuffed behind his back.
There have been numerous other stories of questionable deaths resulting from “suicidal tendencies, but they always seem to be discharged without much more thought. It’s too bad dash cam footage isn’t public property, maybe we could start seeing some truth among all the lies.
Featured image via ABC/WFAA.
