The Congressional Black Caucus is urging the Division of Justice to launch a federal overview into the demise of 18-year-old Nolan Wells.
The request for the “impartial federal overview of the circumstances surrounding the disappearance and demise” of the Mississippi teen was introduced Thursday by lawmakers, Wells’ household and supporters.
Rep. Lucy McBath, a Georgia Democrat, attended a press convention with Wells’ household, their lawyer Ben Crump and Rev. Al Sharpton on the Nationwide Affiliation of Black Journalists Conference in Atlanta on Thursday to make the announcement.
“We’re demanding a full federal investigation as to what has really occurred to Nolan Wells,” McBath stated on the press convention Thursday. “All of our youngsters’s and our households’ lives matter, and we should combat again.”
McBath misplaced her personal teen son, Jordan Davis, in 2012 when he was shot by Michael Dunn in Florida over loud music. Dunn is serving a life sentence for the homicide.
A person locations {a photograph} of Nolan Xavier Wells in entrance of the rostrum earlier than a information convention through the 117th NAACP Nationwide Conference at McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois, on July 22, 2026.
Octavio Jones/AFP by way of Getty Photos
Whilst lawmakers referred to as for the investigation, Sharpton expressed doubts concerning the present Justice Division.
“There was a time that let’s imagine if state authorities fail us, we will go to the Justice Division,” Sharpton stated. “Even beneath George Bush, we went to the Justice Division.”
In a press release to ABC Information on Thursday, the DOJ confirmed that it obtained the CBC’s letter and “is making certain the suitable personnel throughout the Division are reviewing it fastidiously.”
Wells vanished after going on a Fourth of July boat trip with pals to one of many Gulf Coast’s barrier islands, officers stated. Wells was final seen on Horn Island, a barrier island about 10 miles from the Gulf Coast, based on authorities. His physique was recovered a number of days later.
Nobody has been charged with any wrongdoing within the incident.
As soon as native authorities full their investigation, the case supplies, together with the post-mortem report by the state medical expert, shall be offered to a grand jury, which is able to resolve whether or not Wells’ demise concerned against the law. The findings from the state’s post-mortem have not been released.
A personal post-mortem commissioned by Wells’ household preliminarily discovered that his trigger and method of demise are “undetermined pending investigation,” with the impartial pathologist acknowledging a number of limitations within the report, the household’s lawyer stated final month.
The Jackson County District Lawyer’s workplace has beforehand stated it is going to current the case to a grand jury as soon as the native sheriff’s division investigation into Wells’ demise is full. The DA’s workplace stated convening a grand jury doesn’t imply there may be any criminality and is normal process for many unnatural or suspicious deaths within the county.
Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter has stated there was no preliminary indication of against the law, however he pressured that investigators have been “working diligently to find out precisely what occurred.”
“Nolan Wells’ household deserves a radical and factual investigation, and that is precisely what they are going to get,” he advised ABC Information final month.
Crump introduced on Thursday that the household wished to carry a nationwide day of prayer for Nolan Wells on Aug. 19, which might have been his nineteenth birthday.
Talking to reporters on Thursday, Christine Wonsley, Wells’ mom, stated his loss is getting tougher for her as his birthday approaches.
“That realization is admittedly sinking in that we do not have our son bodily right here anymore, and I feel lots of people have forgotten,” Wonsley stated. “Solely factor we need to know is what occurred.”
ABC Information’ Jeana Fermi contributed to this story.
