Six weeks before he died, Brandon Clarke sat in the back seat of a deputy’s patrol car, handcuffs digging into his left wrist as he shifted his 6-foot-8 frame in the cramped space. Outside, three officers searched his white Corvette along the shoulder of Highway 64 in eastern Arkansas. Across the two-lane road sat a steakhouse serving ribeye and deep-fried alligator, its empty parking lot waiting for the dinner regulars. Moments earlier, deputies had pulled over the
Memphis Grizzlies forward with guns drawn, accusing him of attempting to flee at speeds topping 100 mph. But now, officers were more interested in the blue duffle bag on Clarke’s passenger seat.
Reaching inside, they found seven smaller bags containing capsules of green powder and a few chewable tablets. They stacked them on the Corvette’s roof as Clarke watched from the cruiser’s backseat. “Sir, it’s all legal,” Clarke’s deep voice called out with calm certainty in an exchange captured by the cruiser’s dashcam and obtained by The Athletic.
New York Times
