Oops is now a police term

Christine Hauser has an article about a supposed suicide in The New York Times:

On a dark suburban street in Jonesboro, Arkansas, last month, the police arrested a young man named Chavis Carter. They searched him, handcuffed him, and put him in the back of a patrol car. But what started as a routine arrest then took a fatal turn. As the officers were about to drive Carter to jail, they found him slumped over, his hands still cuffed behind his back, drenched in blood. According to the police report, he had fatally shot himself in the head.
In the weeks since the death of Carter, 21, heavy scrutiny has fallen on the police and their procedures, and calls for justice have lit up Twitter and Facebook. Petitions have circulated online, one demanding an investigation, another calling for the resignation of the Jonesboro police chief, Michael Yates. Protests were organized in Mississippi, where Carter was raised; in Tennessee, where he has family; and in Arkansas. The local news media published the internal police records of the arresting officers, who were put on administrative leave. The FBI and the district attorney’s office are monitoring the case. Nonetheless, the most pressing questions remain unanswered.
On Monday, Carter’s death was ruled a suicide, based on the gunshot wound and the “investigative conclusions” of the Jonesboro police. The autopsy report was issued after the police took the unusual step of creating a video re-enactment intended to bolster its version of events; the video shows officers twisting around in the back seat of a patrol car and holding fake handguns to their heads while handcuffed.
Stephen A. Erickson, the deputy chief medical examiner who oversaw the autopsy, said in an interview that “soot and searing” in Carter’s wound meant that a gun was in “tight contact” with his head, typical of such a suicide. But he added that such wounds could also indicate a shooting at close range. “Anatomically, you can’t tell the two apart,” he said. “The manner of death is certainly based on the conclusions of the investigators, taken at face value.” Toxicology results showed that Carter had methamphetamine and other drugs in his system.
Benjamin A. Irwin, a lawyer for the Cochran Firm, which is representing Carter’s family, said the autopsy report relied too heavily on the police version. One outstanding issue, Irwin and others have said, is how Carter could have concealed the .380-caliber Cobra semiautomatic pistol from the police, who have said they searched him twice. Irwin said he also wanted to know whether others were tested for gunpowder residue, and how someone could be fatally shot while in police custody. The autopsy report also said he was shot in the right temple, while Carter’s family has said he was left-handed. “We know Chavis died of a gunshot wound to the head, which is addressed in the report,” Irwin said in an emailed statement. “What the Carter family deserves to know is why.”
Just before 10 p.m. on 29 July, according to police reports, Officer Keith Baggett and Officer Ron Marsh responded in separate patrol cars to Haltom Street, after someone called 911 to report a white truck being operated with its headlights off. Carter, who was a passenger in the truck, and two other young men were asked to get out and were searched.
The two other men, who are white, were questioned and allowed to leave. Officers said they found a small amount of marijuana on Carter, who was black, as well as bags “commonly used to package drugs” in his pocket; they also learned that he had an outstanding arrest warrant in Mississippi related to a felony probation case. He was handcuffed and put into Officer Marsh’s car.
In police dashboard video taken during the stop, a female voice can be heard asking an officer what would be done with Carter; Officer Baggett said Carter identified the woman as his aunt. “At that time I saw a vehicle driving north on Haltom and then heard a loud thump with a metallic sound” Officer Baggett reported. He and Officer Marsh had started toward their vehicles and were about to drive away, he said, when Officer Marsh gestured and “said that Carter had shot himself.” Officer Marsh’s report was not released.
At the car, Officer Baggett wrote, “I observed Carter in a sitting position slumped forward with his head in his lap. His hands were still cuffed behind his back,” Officer Baggett wrote, describing Carter as blood-soaked and still breathing. The officers called an ambulance.
A witness, Jamie Anderson, said during an interrogation at the police station that she heard a sound “like a gun going off,” and then saw the officers go toward the car. Irwin, the lawyer, pointed out that the dashboard videos were edited. “During this time, it is alleged that Chavis lost his life, and we all need to know what happened during those three minutes,” he said.

Rico says a .380-caliber Cobra semiautomatic is a classic police 'throwdown' weapon; what with the difficulty of shooting oneself while handcuffed, along with 'editing' of the dashboard video, this smacks of murder...