(LAUREL, Miss.) — A national nonprofit organization is offering a $50,000 reward for any information that will lead to the “arrest and conviction” of a 25-year-old Black man’s killer.
Rasheem Carter was reported missing last October and was last seen in Laurel, Mississippi. His mother, Tiffany Carter, said her son warned her and the police that he was being targeted by white men in the community. “Three truckloads of white guys” were trying to kill him, Rasheem Carter told his mother before his disappearance.
Last Saturday, Carter’s family and community members protested his death, demanding transparency in the investigation. A fourth set of remains were identified as Carter’s on April 30, according to attorneys.
“This has really been a struggle for our family, but we’re going to do the best we can to fight,” Tiffany Carter said during the protest. “We’re going to do what we gotta do to get the justice that we deserve to have.”
You Are The Power, the nonprofit offering the $50,000 award, has been searching for leads in the Carter case.
“When Rasheem Carter needed help, police refused,” the nonprofit said in an Instagram post. “But we can help bring justice to Rasheem’s killer(s), and closure to his loved ones.”
According to its website, the organization has over 50 million social media followers and has relationships with activists and organizations across all 50 states.
“Our purpose is to use localized, grassroots, single-issue activism to empower people to work together to set our communities free, restore individual rights, and take the power away from government and put it back in your hands, where it belongs,” according to You Are The Power’s site.
On Nov. 2, the first set of Rasheem Carter’s remains were found in a wooded area south of Taylorsville. His head was severed from his body, with his spinal cord recovered in an area separate from his head, according to family attorney Ben Crump.
The medical examiner ruled that the cause and manner of death were undetermined.
“Rasheem was killed last October, and local police have refused to do anything about it. They claim there is ‘no evidence’ of foul play, even though his head was removed from his body,” You Are The Power said on Instagram.
The Smith County Police Department originally ruled out foul play in the case. According to Crump, officials later recanted their statement.
“From the beginning of this case, the family has been misled,” Crump said. “At first, when the first of Rasheem’s remains were discovered with his head decapitated from his body, officials told the family that it was animals that killed Rasheem. Then officials admitted that they believed he was murdered.”
Crump, along with his co-counsel Carlos Moore, is calling for the U.S. Department of Justice to open a federal investigation into Carter’s death.
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