Concerns are growing in Louisiana around the investigation into the tragic death of a Black 15-year-old who went missing on Oct. 30, according to The Advocate.
Quawan Charles left his home with a friend, a white 17-year-old, and his friend's mom but never returned. Charles' parents frantically begged the police to search for him and release a missing person notice but local law enforcement refused.
Local news outlet KLFY reported that Charles' body was later found in a sugarcane field.
“They were told things [by police] like, ‘He’s probably at a football game; probably here; there; anywhere else,’ and we don’t know if those delays could’ve contributed to his death. We know when there is a missing child, the most critical moment is when you first call law enforcement that the child is missing,” the family's attorney Ron Haley told Revolt.
Haley told Blavity that an Amber Alert was not issued for Charles because a kidnapping had not been confirmed. However, the 15-year-old's family had questions after seeing Charles' body and originally being told he had drowned, according to KATC.
The family has since shared a photo of Charles' body with injuries to his face.
“His face is disfigured. So there’s some explaining that needs to be done there. They still have not shown us where Quawan was or what creek he was found at. We can’t even go and put up a cross where he was found at. They’re being very discreet,” family spokesperson Celina Charles said.
Celina added that it seemed "as though they tried to sweep this under the rug."
"We not only feel like the family has been let down, but the community, the public, the media. Everybody has questions, not only the family. He was only 15. It could have been anybody's child," she said.
On a GoFundMe page, the family placed the photo of Charles next to that of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955.
"Quawan's face — You can see that it's just about gone. The coroner told us that there was no blunt force trauma to the head and no sign of strangulation, but when you look at him, you see something totally different from what the coroner said," Celina said.
Both the Baldwin Police Department and Iberia Parish Sheriff's Office have refused to release any information to multiple news outlets and have each released statements.
The Baldwin Police Department said they would not be investigating the death and defended their decision to not release an Amber Alert.
"The Baldwin Police Department will be investigating reasons why the deceased juvenile was missing from his residence in Baldwin. Proper protocol was used to report the juvenile as missing and all procedures were followed thru within the Baldwin jurisdiction," the police department said in a statement.
Katherine Breaux, the spokesperson for the Iberia Parish Sheriff's Office, called it a "terrible tragedy" but refused to release any other details, only telling the newspaper that her office was not alerted that Charles was even missing.
The response from both law enforcement departments prompted the Charles family to seek an independent autopsy of Charles' body and hire an investigator.
Celina added that the 15-year-old was quiet but he enjoyed fishing, playing with his dog and riding his four-wheeler.
The family's attorneys have also released a recording to The Root that features Celina speaking to an unnamed woman who made a number of claims based on what her son saw.
The woman, whose name is bleeped out of the recording, said her son knows the white 17-year-old who Charles left home with and that the friend's family was allegedly on psychedelic mushrooms at the time of Charles' death.
The woman said her son told her the family's car smelled like bleach and they found Charles' body in the sugarcane field behind their home.
Other local activists bashed the police in interviews with news outlets, slamming them for not taking the case seriously.
Jamal Taylor, an activist with the NAACP, The Village and Stand Black, said that groups planned to protest outside of the Iberia Parish Sheriff's Office at 4 p.m. on Wednesday.
"Bobby's mother has explicitly asked that it be peaceful. We're going to go with signs and just have our presence felt by the Sheriff's department. We're standing with the family. We're here to support the family. We're going to fight for Quawan, and we're not going to back down. He's not going to be just another hashtag," Taylor said.
"If Quawan was a 15-year-old white female, they would have turned the city upside down for her. It blows my mind the blatant disregard the Police Department had for the wellbeing of a Black child," he added.
A funeral will be held for Charles at West St. Mary Civic Center on Nov. 21.
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