A reward of up to $100,000 is available for information that would lead to an arrest and conviction in connection with the death of Nolan Wells, civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton said during the 18-year-old’s funeral on Monday.
“I want to offer a reward of $50,000 to anybody who could give the information that would lead to an arrest and conviction in the case of what happened,” Sharpton said. “He was not on that island by himself. Somebody saw something and knows something. I didn’t come to make money. I came to give money, stand up, and tell the truth.”
Sharpton said that the money would come from the National Action Network that he founded and added later in the funeral that prominent filmmaker Tyler Perry is offering a matching $50,000 reward for the same information. Perry is also reported to have paid for all funeral expenses.
Wells, an Ocean Springs native and football player at Southwest Mississippi Community College, was found dead on Horn Island on July 6. Before that, he had last been seen on July 4, when he accompanied a group of friends to the barrier island via boat. Since then, the cause of his death has sparked an investigation by law enforcement and a whirlwind of speculation on social media.
According to pictures taken the day Wells went missing, the deceased was the only Black individual among a group of white friends. And though the head of the Mississippi Department of Public Safety previously said there is no reason to believe race factored into the death of Wells, some have suggested otherwise. Sharpton, during the funeral, said it’s foolish for anybody to make any inferences of race both playing a role and not playing a role in Wells’ passing until a fair investigation has concluded.
“We want answers, not biased either way, just answers. I think that, for the family, the closure can come if there is justice,” Sharpton said. “Some have pre-judged [this case]. I do not think it is appropriate for either side of opinions to prevail without a fair investigation. We cannot say it was racist, but we cannot say it was not racist. So let’s not judge until all evidence is in.”
Sharpton served as the officiant of the funeral. During the service, he questioned the story provided by Wells’ friends regarding his disappearance. The friends said Wells stayed behind to talk to a female on Horn Island while they began to return to the mainland. Wells’ phone and keys, however, remained on the boat with the friends. After recovering the items, Wells’ parents allege that messages had been deleted from their son’s phone.
Suspected irregularities, like Wells not returning with the group with whom he went to the island, apparent messages deleted from his phone, and no clear sign of what happened to the 18-year-old, paved the way for the family to be suspicious of what actually happened to him that day. Sharpton, leaning on the Biblical account of Cain and Abel, echoed those suspicions.
In the Bible, Cain is said to have killed his brother, Abel, out of jealousy. Cain further denied having any knowledge of where Abel was after killing him, and posed the question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” to God. It was later revealed in the story that God could hear the blood of Abel crying from the ground, which Sharpton used as a parallel to Wells’ case.
To Sharpton, if Wells was subjected to foul play and bad actors are withholding information, those responsible for keeping the truth from coming to light will be haunted by his death. Still, the longtime civil rights activist called on law enforcement to thoroughly investigate the matter and to provide a full and transparent report of what happened, leaving no reason for doubt in its assessment.
“I hear this morning Nolan’s blood crying from the ground. Am I my brother’s keeper? Or am I the keeper of some secret, some information that you could give, but won’t stand up? But the blood’s going to haunt you,” Sharpton said. “Those in law enforcement, your job is to follow your oath, not to follow the preference of what went down.”
Sharpton further pointed to Mississippi’s history with race, specifically highlighting the deaths of civil rights icons Emmett Till and Medgar Evers, as a justified cause for concern in Wells’ case. He said, because of race-related tragedies that have occurred in Mississippi in the past, the public cannot accept any narrative in this case unless all unanswered questions have been resolved.
“I look back at the history, and I noticed that Emmett Till happened here. Medgar Evers happened here,” Sharpton said. “Based on the history, we’ve got to be able to dig deep. We cannot have people in law enforcement say there was no foul play before an investigation [concludes].”
The investigation into the death of Wells continues. Two autopsies, one by the state of Mississippi and one independent, have been conducted. The independent autopsy was paid for by activist and former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick. As of early Monday afternoon, the results of both autopsies are pending.