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The family of a Black man found dead last year after a chilling phone with his mother are alleging that his death was a modern-day “lynching.”
Rasheem Carter, 25, warned his mother that he was being chased by a group of white men in trucks who shouted racial slurs at him before he disappeared.
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“My son told me it was three truckloads of white guys trying to kill him,” said Tiffany Carter, who last spoke to her son on October 1, 2022 – the day before he was reported missing.
Carter told WDAM that she had urged her son to get help from the police in Taylorsville, Mississippi.
She said that her son wanted a ride back to Laurel where he lived but claimed that police didn’t drive him.
“They did not help him,” said Carter. “He asked for help but they did not help.”
Rasheem’s remains were found on November 2, exactly a month after his family reported him missing.
Police said he was found in a wooded area south of Taylorsville, however, despite the case still being under investigation, the Smith County Sheriff’s Department said it had “no reason to believe foul play was involved.”
Rasheem’s family called on high-profile attorney Ben Crump, who criticized local authorities for how they handled the early stages of the investigation.
“This was a nefarious act. This was an evil act,” Crump said in a press conference.
“Somebody murdered Rasheem Carter, and we cannot let them get away with this.”
Crump asked for the Department of Justice to take over the investigation as a civil rights case, saying that Rasheem’s death wasn’t natural.
“This represents a young man who was killed,” he said, revealing photos of Rasheem’s skeletal remains, including his skill and vertebrae.
Crump believes Rasheem’s head may have been severed from his body as his spinal cord was found in a different area from his head.
“There is nothing natural about this. It screams out for justice,” he said. “What we have is a Mississippi lynching.”
The Laurel Police Department worked on Rasheem’s case after his family asked for help, said Chief Tommy Cox.
The department also put out his missing person’s report.
However, Cox told NBC News that Rasheem didn’t call the department for help before he went missing and the investigation was handed over to Smith County after it was determined it was outside of Laurel’s jurisdiction.
Cox added that the department was able to get phone records and interview some of Rasheem’s co-workers but would not say anything further.
“We tried to put ourselves in their shoes. It didn’t hurt us to do a little bit of work on it,” he said.
“We did what we considered to be the right thing. And then when it became obvious which jurisdiction would be the lead, we turned it over to them.”
According to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, an autopsy on Rasheem’s remains was completed on February 2 but could not say more due to the “open and ongoing investigation.”
Rasheem’s mother said her son was spotted on a trail camera in the Mississippi woods without his shirt and carrying a large branch on the day he was reported missing.
She told Insider that the image showed that “something was wrong” and that Rasheem was “running for his life.”
“You could see there are bruises on him,” said Tiffany Carter. “When I see that picture, I know my son was somewhere struggling, somewhere running for his life.
“I really believe he was chased there.”
Sheriff Joel Houston of the Smith County Sheriff’s Office said the department is trying to look at every possibility but says there isn’t any evidence of foul play at this time.
“There is nothing being covered up. There is nothing being swept under the rug,” he said. “There’s nothing to hide.”
Houston added that he has no issues with the Department of Justice getting involved in the investigation.
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