Jena teen shoots himself

One of the central figures in the “Jena Six” civil rights case shot himself in the chest after his Christmas Eve shoplifting arrest made the news. Mychal Bell, 18, shot himself Monday with a .22-caliber handgun. Police said his wound was not life-threatening.

“When it was broadcast that he was charged with shoplifting, he just felt that the whole year had been wasted and that he had worked all of that time for nothing,” said Louis Scott, who represented Bell in the case in which Bell and five other black teenagers were charged in the 2006 beating of a white classmate. Bell had hoped to win a college football scholarship.

Bell and the other members of the Jena Six once faced attempted murder charges in the beating at Jena High School. The charges for all the defendants were eventually reduced.