Authorities are investigating the the mysterious demise of Black teenager Quawan “Bobby” Charles, whose body used to be found in a Louisiana sugar cane discipline, as a homicide, they said.
The announcement came Saturday after kinfolk of Charles, 15, and native civil rights groups known as for an independent investigation and raised questions on whether or not his recede played a role in how law enforcement officers handled his case to this level.
Charles’ body used to be found on Nov. 3 in a sugar cane discipline shut to the village of Loreauville, about 20 miles from his father’s residence in 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley. His mother first reported him lacking on Oct. 30.
A lawyer for the family said closing week that it used to be unclear why officers hadn’t issued an Amber Alert after he disappeared or how he can hold drowned — the seemingly reason of demise listed within the autopsy anecdote — when his body used to be found in shallow water.
The Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Command of work didn’t mutter why it is investigating his demise as a homicide.
“Honest as we blueprint after all moving any person found deceased in this form, we straight started treating this as a homicide investigation on the very moment we found Quawan “Bobby” Charles,” the sheriff’s region of enterprise said in a assertion Saturday.
The sheriff’s region of enterprise additionally said that it had not been alerted to Charles’ disappearance unless Nov. 3, when one of his fogeys contacted the region of enterprise.
Charles’ mother had on the starting place reported him lacking to her native police department within the town of 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, and the department then notified the native sheriff’s region of enterprise in St. Mary Parish, the assertion said.
It used to be not straight certain why the sheriff’s region of enterprise in St. Mary Parish didn’t alert authorities in within attain Iberia Parish, the place Charles’ body used to be found. A St. Mary spokesperson didn’t reply Sunday evening to a seek facts from for comment.
Investigators found Charles’ body hours after studying of his disappearance, the sheriff’s region of enterprise said within the assertion, adding that it used to be “actively and aggressively” gathering evidence and conducting interviews.
Investigators reviewed video evidence from an place shut to the place Charles’ body used to be found that showed him on camera sooner than his demise and no one else with him, the assertion said.
The sheriff’s region of enterprise said it used to be awaiting toxicology outcomes and declined to supply extra dinky print about Charles’ demise since the investigation used to be ongoing.
A lawyer for the family, Trail Trichell, said Sunday that he used to be heartened that the sheriff’s region of enterprise used to be investigating Charles’ demise as a homicide.
“No in a region-bodied 15-yr-damaged-down is going to drown in ankle-deep water without some exterior impact that contributed to his demise,” he said.
Peaceable, he said that neither the family nor their lawyers hold heard from Iberia Parish Sheriff Thomas Romero about imaginable leads, theories and other findings, no topic a seek facts from Friday for a gathering.
A spokesperson for the sheriff would possibly well not straight mutter if Romero would meet with them.
