Mychal Bell, one of six black teens in the Jena Six case, shot himself in the chest Monday night around 7:40 in Monroe, Louisiana, where he’s been staying with a foster family.
Police Sgt. Cassandra Wooten said Bell’s wound isn’t life-threatening and believes he was upset over media coverage of his arrest last week on a shoplifting charge.
Bell was arrested less than one month after he completed a sentence for his role in the beating of a fellow classmate, Justin Barker, at Jena High School in 2006. He was sentenced to 18 months for his part in the crime and also served a sentence for three previous unnamed crimes.
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Twenty-two year old Raymond Hunter Geisel has been held without bail in Florida after allegedly threatening to assassinate Barack Obama and George W. Bush.
Although Geisel denied making the threats in a Secret Service affidavit, he told an agent that in a joke to other participants at a bail bondsman’s training course, he said that if he wanted to kill Obama he would shoot him with a sniper rifle.
A witness told investigators that Geisel had said, “That nigger, if he gets elected, I’ll assassinate him myself.” Another said he overheard Geisel say at a hotel that he hated Bush and wanted to put a bullet in his head.
Authorities found a cache of ammunition, including armor-piercing bullets, and a handgun in Geisel’s SUV and hotel room. Geisel described himself as a victim of physical and emotional abuse when he was younger and said he voluntarily checked himself into a mental health facility in Maine for post traumatic stress disorder.
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Last year, more than 20,000 people marched on Jena, LA, to protest the treatment of the six young, black men now known as the “Jena 6“. The six teens were being tried for attempted murder after a fight on school grounds where Justin Barker, a white student, was beaten, which followed the hanging of nooses in the school’s courtyard and subsequent race-based conflicts.
On Monday, lawyers for the youngest of the Jena 6, Jesse Ray Beard, who was 14 at the time, filed a motion to remove Judge J.P. Mauffray Jr. and District Attorney (D.A.) Reed Walters from any future involvement in juvenile court matters involving him. Mauffray and Walters served as the judge and prosecutor, respectively, in the Jena 6 cases and Beard’s attorneys argue their prejudice during and after the proceedings have betrayed an unfair bias against Beard. Continue
It’s been a few weeks since a Jena 6 update post, and let’s just say nothing but drama has been surrounding the case.
I’m sure everyone saw that youtube video that hit the net a few weeks back. The video allegedly shows one of the Jena 6 defendants rolling around in the donation money that supporters sent in. Since those photos still have yet to be verified, I will give these kids the benefit of doubt. Let’s just say I was highly pissed off when I heard about it though.
Now, on to some other drama with the case. The reputable organization “The Color of Change” who has been in the forefront of the whole Jena 6 rally was recently attacked by popular radio show host Michael Baisden. Baisden, who coincidentally has been a big supporter of the case as well, claimed that they were misusing donation money and that it wasn’t being used for the actual defense fund. The Color of Change denies the allegations and even provides proof that they are handling the donations correctly.
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