Baron Pikes: Cover-Up in Taser Death of African American Man Shocked Nine Times

Police in the city of Winnfield, Louisiana are being accused of covering up the death of twenty-one-year-old Baron Pikes. He died in police custody on January 21 after being shot nine times with a taser gun while in handcuffs. The city police chief initially claimed that Pikes was high on crack cocaine and PCP at the time of his death. But the coroner recently ruled Pikes’ death to be a homicide, after an autopsy determined there were no drugs in his system. The coroner also determined that the police shot Pikes twice after he lost consciousness.

Nearly a year has passed since tens of thousands of protesters marched in Jena Louisiana in one of the largest civil rights demonstrations in years.

The march condemned racism in the small town and the prosecution of six black high school students known as the Jena Six who were jailed after a school yard fight. The fight occurred after white students hung nooses from a tree in the schoolyard.

Now another racially explosive story is unfolding in a nearby community. And it involved a close relative of Mychal Bell, the lead defendant in the Jena Six case.

Police in the city of Winnfield are being accused of covering up the death of an African American man named Baron Pikes. The 21-year-old was Bell’s first cousin. Pikes died in police custody on January 21 after being shot nine times with a taser gun while in handcuffs.

The city police chief initially claimed that Pikes was high on crack cocaine and PCP at the time of his death.

But the coroner recently ruled Pikes’ death to be a homicide after an autopsy determined there were no drugs in his system. His death certificate states that he died after being “electro shocked nine times while in police custody and restraint.” The coroner also determined that the police shot Pikes twice after he lose consciousness.

Scott Nugent, the white police officer who tased Pikes, has been fired from the police department but no charges have been filed in connection to Pikes’ death.

Source: Democracy Now