Something I was thinking about, which I'd like others to weigh in on:
Some people have expressed disbelief that this one particular mat would be rolled up so much more loosely than the others we see, loosely enough to fit a body. Well, I was considering that issue...
those are clearly much more tightly rolled than the one he was in, right? But how much slack is there within the ties they use to hold them together? I'm not sure.
Now admittedly, that one looks like it was rolled that way... even looks like it was rolled with him already inside of it. However, is it possible that this mat was in fact rolled more loosely than others, but not as loosely as it ended up?
As in, could his shoe have gone down into it, but not all the way to the bottom? Let's say it was looser than the others, but only half as loose as it appears with his body inside of it. Others on other sites have expressed disbelief that he could have possibly thought he would be able to reach a shoe 8 feet below himself if it was all the way on the floor.
What if it was halfway down? What if it was lodged into a loose, but not that loose, mat?
Could it have appeared more doable initially? But by reaching down into there, he got himself caught, and then made it worse by struggling? Could he have actually wriggled his way down further, and encased his entire body rather than just half of it as may have been the case at first, through the act of trying to get out?
Notice how his pair of shoes he was wearing ended up off his feet, next to him. They're exactly where you'd expect if he ended up squirming out of them either deliberately, thinking his unshod feet might have better luck, or accidentally as he struggled, and then gravity just carried them down to his side.
Otherwise, what are we to believe? He was beaten to death just off camera, within a short period of time, by people who counted on nobody coming into the gym, and who knew exactly the sweet spot the cameras didn't cover... then they rolled him up in a mat, and tossed the shoes in beside him? Presumably to hide them? But they didn't toss other items which seem to have been connected to Kendrick in?
I really don't think some racist murder squad or whatever people are theorizing, would choose to strike in a gym in the middle of the day, in a populated school, where someone could walk in at any moment, and there are cameras...
My hunch is the shoe seemed more grabbable at first, but it slipped further down as he attempted to reach it, because he was widening the hole by making the attempt. I think by the time he realized he was having difficulty getting back out, it was too late, and his further struggles just made it worse.
Also, note how the standing mats seem more cylindrical, and seem like they are bulging out much closer to the maximum distance the tie-wrap thing allows for, just like the one Kendrick is in.
The others (without bodies in them) which are laid flat sort of sink to a flattened look... but is it possible that all of the ones which are standing straight up end up having a hole down the middle? And they only look so tightly packed due to gravity when they're laid flat? Does the natural tendency of the mat to unfurl press it out to the limits of the tie-wrap when it's stood straight up, but gravity makes it flatten out when it's on it's side?
It would be interesting to see the tops of those other mats, they look much more like the Kendrick mat.
EDIT: Ha, upon looking closer it seems the mat he ended up in is an entirely different type (blue, not segmented, different material) than the others, anyway. Some of what I was talking about still applies, but maybe that's the more important factor. His shoe may have ended up going down the one mat which would allow it to do so.