Nolan Xavier Wells, an 18-year-old found dead after taking a July 4 boat trip with friends to a Gulf Coast island, will be remembered Monday by his family and civil rights leaders at a church in his hometown of Ocean Springs, Mississippi.
The funeral will be officiated by the Rev. Al Sharpton, with a call to justice delivered by the family’s lawyer, Ben Crump, a prominent civil rights attorney. Wells’ mother, Christine Wonsley, said they would use the occasion to celebrate the life of their son, who she described as a “bright light” and a “sensitive soul.”
“He would not want us to be sitting around crying and eating, and so what we’re gonna do is kind of have a party to celebrate him,” she said last week.
Wells’ death has captured national attention, galvanizing Black leaders and touching off fraught discussions of racial tension and mistrust of law enforcement in the Deep South.
The teenager, who was Black, had traveled by boat to Horn Island, a popular Fourth of July destination, with a group of friends from high school, all of whom were white. He did not return with his friends to the mainland that evening, officials said. His body was found two days later off the island’s coast.
Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter has said Wells’ friends are cooperating with the investigation, which remains ongoing. He said that initial interviews suggested Wells chose to stay on the island and that his friends believed he would get a ride with someone else.
But the still-unknown circumstances leading to Wells’ disappearance have fueled rampant online speculation, along with questions from his parents about why he was left behind.
Crump has said that another witness reported Wells planned to leave on the boat with his friends, contradicting the sheriff’s statement. He also alleged that messages appeared to have been deleted from the phone, which was found with Wells’ friends, along with his keys.
The attorney, who is leading his own investigation into the death, said he would work alongside the local prosecutor to inspect the device. The prosecutor agreed last week to present the results of the investigation to a grand jury once it is completed, Crump said.
“Our lived experiences tell us that we must question everything, everybody’s role, law enforcement’s role,” Crump said. “That is the lived experience as Black people in America.”
Wells, who would have turned 19 next month, played wide receiver on the football team at Southwest Mississippi Community College in Summit, Mississippi, and had aspirations of playing at a high-level Division I program.
“He was very sociable with everyone, didn’t meet a stranger,” his coach, Les George, told WAPT-TV. “He would pop up at my office and come sit on the couch just to hang out and talk.”
His death has drawn support from high-profile members of the Black community. Actor and producer Tyler Perry is helping pay for Wells’ funeral. Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick is helping pay for his independent autopsy, and filmmaker Spike Lee attended a news conference last week in support of Wells’ family.
In a joint statement last week, members of the Congressional Black Caucus called for an independent and transparent investigation into Wells' death, adding that “too many questions remain unanswered.”
“We hope the outpouring of concern and support from people across the country in recent days brings them some comfort in the days ahead,” they added.
