The Riverfront Times, the alt-paper in St. Louis, has been doing work on the events in Ferguson that can make an alumnus of the alt-press like me stand up and cheer. They have found a woman who was actually shot in Ferguson while walking home from a rally, and whose situation seems to bother local law enforcement not at all.

When she sat up, Aaten-White knew something was wrong. "Oh my God, you're shot in the head," she recalls a young man telling her. Several young men carried her into a nearby house where the residents called 911. She says police officers -- she believes they were St. Louis County police -- interviewed her briefly before she was taken to the hospital. She was able to take the above photo in the ambulance and upload it to Instagram. It went viral. Now, a little over a week later, Aaten-White wants to know why no one in law enforcement has followed up with her about her case. Stranger still, she says, she doesn't know what happened to the bullet that doctors removed from her skull. "Someone has the bullet. Someone has the bullet, and it was an officer," says her attorney, Marwan Porter.

This woman got shot, by person or persons unknown. She is very lucky she is not dead. And, according to her and her lawyers, the only thing the local police have done about it is to take away the bullet and thus pollute the chain of evidence available to any prosecutor beyond all recall.

When we spoke with him several hours later, the story just got weirder. "I've talked to both the St. Louis County Police Department and Ferguson...they have no record...no file number, no report," he said. "They don't have anything." Daily RFT contacted Ferguson Police Department press officer Tim Zoll who referred us to the city's new media representative, Common Ground PR. The number went straight to voicemail both times we tried. Next we tried the St. Louis County Police Department. Press officer Brian Schellman emailed back that he believes this is a Ferguson Police Department case, but our request is being forwarded to their keeper of records for verification. He warned they are inundated with requests and answering may take time.

How many other people got, you know, shot in the head? Shouldn't somebody who got shot in the head at least go to the top of the pile?

There does seem to have been some preliminary spin on the story (scroll down). If this is a drive-by, wouldn't the local police be all over it, because a drive-by would be powerful evidence that their overreaction to events was fully justified. Instead, we get nothing. I'm going to be wondering where in the hell that bullet got to.

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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