UPDATE: Police now say that it was attempted suicide. Mychal Bell told investigators he shot himself Monday evening “because he was tired of all the media attention,” the report says. Read more at CNN and as I said below, the psychological affects of what has happened are far reaching and need to be evaluated.
I am sure many were hoping for a modern day Little Rock Nine when the news of the boys now known as the Jena Six swept through the internet and eventually made headline news. Unfortunately, the stories to follow have not been the heroic legacy of previous civil rights history makers.
Mychal Bell, who has been at the center of the controversy, has remained a news maker after the dust settled from the protests and lawsuits. Sadly, the news was always good news.
Today, news broke that Mychal, who has since moved, shot himself after being arrested days earlier for stealing.
Mychal Bell was cleaning a gun when it accidentally discharged, shooting him in the shoulder, his attorney, Carol Powell-Lexing, told CNN. He had surgery Monday night at a hospital in Monroe, Louisiana, and has not yet been able to talk, she said.
Monroe police Sgt. Cassandra Wooten said the wound was not life-threatening.
On Christmas Eve, he was booked on theft charges after he allegedly tried to steal shirts from a department store and fled when a security guard and off-duty police officer tried to detain him. Bell also was booked on a charge of simple battery because he allegedly struck the security guard with an elbow.
While the case of Jena Six will probably live on in law classes and be studied in years to come, I wonder if anyone will ever study the psychological impact this made on these boys, namely Mychal.
A man who has committed a mistake and doesn’t correct it is committing another mistake. – Confucious
