Photo: Getty Images
Questions surround the death of a 14-year-old Black girl who authorities said fell from her scooter in Austin, Texas, KXAN reports.
Treysuhr Carter, 14, was found by a motorist face up and unresponsive on the ground feet away from her scooter on Farmhaven Road last year. Carter was taken to the hospital, where she was treated for several injuries, including a broken neck, brain injury, organ damage, and a shattered shin bone, and placed on life support.
Carter was pronounced dead three days after the incident. An autopsy report by the Travis County Medical Examiner's Office ruled out foul play or any other contributing factor to Carter's death, prompting authorities to close her case.
Carter's family questions whether her death was accidental. Family members cited the nature of her injuries and her athleticism, saying it was hard to believe that she would fall so severely from her scooter.
Newly released body camera footage shows Austin police arriving at Carter's home to inform the family that they concluded her death to be an accident.
“So usually when someone is struck by a vehicle, there’s a lot of physical evidence. People sustain a lot more injuries - this seems consistent to me [with] more of a scooter fall,” a detective told the family, according to footage obtained by KXAN.
Carter's family insisted that the girl may have been hit by a vehicle.
“You have to give us a better explanation, because I’m getting agitated right now because you basically telling me you about to rule it out as an accident,” Carter’s sister, Teneisha Plummer, said in the video.
A KXAN investigation uncovered new evidence at the scene including the scooter and Carter's durag, leading the medical examiner to amend their autopsy to cite that “a motor vehicle was most likely involved.” Following the move, the Austin Police Department reopened Carter's case.
“Reopening the case is fine. It’s actually great,” Plummer told KXAN. “But what are the next steps, being that you collected evidence for an accident and not a crime?”
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