Any time a suspect dies in police custody, there’s sure to be trouble. As, indeed, there should be. The mysterious death of Chavis Carter, 21, of a gunshot wound to the temple inside a locked patrol car in Jonesboro, Ark, was certain to attract outsized scrutiny from the news media.

Even without the ever-combustible racial angle – black victim, white cops – the Sherlock Holmes aspect of the tragedy naturally aroused interest. Very briefly, Carter and two white kids in a pickup truck with Missouri plates struck local residents as suspicious, cruising around with no headlights at 9:50 on a Sunday night.