FULL VIDEO: Nolan Wells’ family, Ben Crump hold news conference after meeting with DA’s office

[0:02] good morning i'm attorney ben crump along with attorney lisa park attorney eric harris [0:09] just impressed and pressing and cliff jones we have the honor of representing the family [0:15] of nolan wells we have present with us his mother and father christine and elmore um we've just had [0:25] an opportunity to meet with district attorney angel mackagraph and some members of her team [0:35] we had a very respectful meeting the thing i assume some of you may know the thing to announce [0:44] she shared with the family that there will be a grand jury that she will turn this case over to [0:54] once they have collected all the information and finished their investigation we also agreed [1:03] that we will have a mutual inspection of the cell phone with our experts and their experts [1:11] attorney eric hertz is helping lead the investigation team with former law enforcement experts who are [1:20] going to help us with the cell phone download so everybody will be able to see at the same time [1:29] what the cell phone has we also talked about trying to make sure we dot every i and cross every t [1:39] i know that we're getting about 50 calls a day to 100 calls a day from people who were [1:49] there on horn island people who are familiar with individuals that were there on horn island and so [1:58] we continue to be steadfast and trying to get to the truth of why nolan wells is dead at this time [2:08] we'll have attorney hertz say a few words and then christine and elmore will just talk about the [2:16] the home going services and celebration for nolan and then we'll take a few of your questions attorney [2:22] eric hertz thank you right now there's a lot of unanswered questions we appreciate the district [2:30] attorney meeting with us but because of certain types of confidentiality that even the victims are [2:35] not allowed to know we did not get all the answers we want we have an independent investigation [2:42] going on that involves former law enforcement federal agents that are going to be looking [2:47] into all the different information we got the calls are coming in and we're getting a lot of [2:51] information some of the people that i spoke to are not talking with law enforcement here we're going [2:57] to be trying to get them to cooperate with each other because we want to make sure the narrative [3:02] which has been put out that is false is going to be corrected so at this point we just asked [3:09] everybody to keep keep calling in if you have any information and let us know and i personally if [3:18] it's that if we validate you're a legitimate call we'll call you and talk to you and i thank you all [3:24] for showing up today and now christina elmore will just share a few some details of the home going [3:33] celebration for their son hello everyone so um the home going celebration the funeral will be held [3:42] at centerpoint church in ocean springs it is going to be uh visitation will be 9 to 11 and then the [3:51] funeral will start after that um the plan is for the repast because again we want to celebrate norman [4:01] and he would not um want us to be sitting around crying and eating and so what we're going to do is [4:14] kind of have a party um to celebrate him and that will be held at the jackson county fairgrounds [4:20] um so we really do want to keep it for family and friends um we are going to allow media to come in [4:29] as well and um lastly i just oh absolutely teammates um we've already contacted um coach les george because [4:41] we want to make sure that those guys are there um former teammates from high school middle school [4:46] teams that he played against uh you guys are all welcome but of course you know we want to make sure [4:52] that our families for sure and close friends get there so i do want to just say for those of you [4:59] again if you are having protests um even the day of his service i am asking you guys to just keep it [5:08] peaceful nolan would never want any type of violence or anything like that he was not that kind of [5:15] person so if you guys would again just just be peaceful and to the community thank you so much [5:23] um just the outpouring of love support we've had some local officials uh mayor casey vaughn from [5:32] goshea has reached out to us oh my gosh i can't even tell you um he has it's almost been every day [5:40] he's been texting to check on us also jeffrey hullum thank you so much he's been texting pretty much every [5:47] day um receiving a lot of stories from nolan's teachers which just warms my heart his classmates [5:57] teammates so again for those of you who have donated to the gofundme once again i stress [6:04] if you are not financially able to we're not begging for that money okay if you're not financially able [6:11] to we understand we thank you for whatever you can give but if you cannot if you would just just keep [6:18] us in your prayers um and to his friends stay strong and please just take care of your mental health [6:25] because i know this is a lot it's a lot for us and i know you guys are feeling some of that too so [6:31] thank you all um are there any questions yes attorney crump um skyler henry here with uh cbs news the last [6:45] time that um you spoke in a setting like this i know you guys were hoping to get results back from [6:52] an independent autopsy i know you mentioned that nolan has been sent to washington is there anything [6:58] to share on that front uh not at this time but we hope uh soon very soon um obviously we're concentrating [7:06] on um the funeral services uh but hopefully shortly thereafter we will be able to tell some findings of [7:15] the preliminary autopsy uh still waiting on some things uh and also while we're talking about funeral [7:23] services i want to thank mr tyler perry for uh pam for the funeral as well as um colin kaepernick for [7:33] helping to shoulder the expense of the independent autopsy and i i thank uh reverend al for agreeing to [7:41] officiate um the funeral services uh yes sir aaron gilchrist with mbc news mr mrs wansley you said from the [7:49] very beginning that for you this was really about getting some answers about what happened to your son [7:55] do you feel like after your meeting today you have any more clarity on on what happened well it was [8:02] just a meeting where she talked about the process she didn't tell us any information about [8:08] uh the investigation too much because those things are as she said her role and what she has to [8:16] do but they still have questions and that's not insignificant to this meeting it's just in [8:26] general every morning they wake up and there's a hole in their heart and they are trying to say [8:32] what happened to my son uh obviously you know they feel strongly that he would not have just stayed [8:40] behind he wouldn't have left his cell phone and so we're trying to get to those answers [8:46] and so we've said from the beginning we're in a ferocious search for the truth and so things out [9:11] there we are trying to post as people do you know something about this let us know just because we [9:17] repost does not mean that we authenticate anything look at our social media we have always been very [9:24] careful to say this is a repost and we almost always give a a declaration that that's what it is a repost [9:33] and so we want people to continue to call about everything uh videos whatever interactions they saw [9:42] and thank god we are getting dozens of people calling every day saying i was on horn island this is [9:51] what i saw i know these individuals this is what we know uh they said we understand the sheriff's [9:59] investigation has hundreds of people calling too and so the hope is that when this is presented to the grand [10:07] jury all relevant witnesses and evidence will be presented to them so that we can have a fair and [10:18] impartial investigation into the death of nolan wells we were very honest and candid with the district [10:28] attorney and she was honest and candid with us uh our lived experiences tell us that we must question [10:37] everything everybody's role law enforcement role that is delivered experience of us as black people in [10:44] america and we would be not honoring the ancestor sacrifices for us if we did not be honest every chance [10:54] we got when we talked to power i mentioned the false narrative out there well i've seen quite a few of [11:01] those so i was wondering if you could tell us which false narrative you're talking about so we can [11:06] let people know it's not true was there a particular false narrative there's a lot of narratives out there [11:12] right now and there's a lot of narratives out there right now i'm not going to comment on any [11:21] particular one but whenever a case this big gets in the news people try for whatever motivations law [11:29] enforcement or whoever people that call in try to set up a narrative so that people will follow the [11:35] narrative our job is to cut through all the noise and find the truth and the truth needs to be found [11:43] by unbiased investigation as well as unbiased lawyers and and all the people that are out here all you [11:53] investigatory journalists and everyone else we just ask that you keep an open mind until we get to the [12:00] truth and one of the things i will say we are trying desperately uh to figure it out and we are don't [12:10] profess to have all the answers but what we're trying and so when people call and tell us this is this [12:17] person and then we get uh somebody saying that no this isn't that person we're trying to balance it all [12:24] so we want to even be more careful ourselves to make certain that we're trying to get people to come [12:31] forward and there are a lot of people who have different perspectives we're getting that just from the [12:37] phone calls that people who were there at the same time are saying different things but we're going [12:44] to get there we we're going to get to the truth uh so first i just want to say my deepest condolences [12:49] to you christine and elmore i'm mark hurts i'm breaking the deal wla spirit home but i want to go on [12:56] and ask you attorney bancroft you say that you were talking about the process and they're with the d.a [13:01] were any affidavits or possible prosecutions or criminal actions presented to her to be signed [13:06] eventually yeah and as she says she her role is confidential at this point so she can maintain [13:17] her prosecutorial independence uh obviously i stress to her very strenuously to say we want you to [13:26] zealously you and the sheriff's department to zealously investigate this matter and and christine and [13:36] elmore share their life experiences too um we we know we know through our lived experiences our life [13:48] experiences that's and she said that's not how our office operates but we know in america in the south [13:59] certain people are investigated differently and we shared that with her we didn't you know ask that [14:07] she understand our perspective but we said we should mutually try to understand each other's [14:15] perspectives where we're coming from and we agreed that we will try to do that where are we in the [14:20] investigation the autopsy are supposed to get it back friday well no we we like we said we're waiting [14:27] let the doctors do what they do they ain't got their autopsy back neither so we're trying to get it right [14:33] and when we get it we're going to share yes ma'am on friday in the press conference you said that you [14:40] hear on the video of no one saying yes my freaking phone what are you freaking doing that's what a [14:45] witness told us and that's what we reported out then another witness that come forward said no that [14:49] was it for us we have other witnesses said there were other altercations so as mr hurt said we're [14:55] trying to go through it all and so forth and we'll be even more careful to say this is what a witness [15:00] told us in the future now we have audio people doing it but we know certain people said it was him [15:11] and then certain people said it was not him are you worried about the um the death threats and the [15:19] violent atmosphere of social media and how these fake videos and photos can play into that oh my god i saw [15:26] a fake video even with public friends getting death threats we don't want anybody life to be in harm's way [15:33] just because we're trying to get to the truth of what happened to christine and elmore's son uh and i [15:40] we saw fake videos about ai generated videos of christine and it's just god offer as they're grieving [15:48] and trying to fight for the truth that they also having to deal with these uh fake videos attacking [15:55] them uh as they are just trying to literally bury their son next week um but we want everybody to say that [16:08] we can go through this journey together for the truth and even though we may have different viewpoints [16:18] we can all agree that everybody wants the truth and nobody life should be threatened for seeking the [16:27] truth nobody should be uh you know presumed uh accountable until we have evidence his mother and father [16:40] only want and christine has said it multiple times she only wants what you would want if this was your son [16:47] if this was your daughter when you want desperately to get to the truth when you want people who were closest [16:56] in proximity to what happened to be investigated and thoroughly investigated we know that you know [17:06] if it was no nolan how would he be investigated so one last question really quickly um just curious [17:18] about the dynamic that you guys have had christine and elmore with law enforcement up until this point [17:24] have you all been able to speak with the sheriff any of the lead investigators since what happened um last [17:29] week so that was actually clarified in today's meeting um the da's office wanted to take over that [17:37] communications because they do have a victim advocate which i appreciate but of course that wasn't [17:43] which she you know took responsibility and accountability for um but we were not communicated with that [17:49] information um so for us you know like i said before the last time we actually spoke to someone with the [17:56] sheriff's department was last tuesday that was via text message that i initiated just asking for an update [18:04] um so that's the biggest thing is you know i appreciate that she took accountability for saying hey [18:10] that was actually our doing but you know we have a setup now and so the hope is that we'll have [18:15] that open lines of communication so you feel like this was useful attorney hertz has uh comment on that [18:22] then let me just say that under the law in mississippi uh victim is entitled within i think it's 72 hours [18:30] to get an incident report and to have certain information shared um it's been more than 72 hours [18:37] and that's part of the meeting here today to start getting the incident report and all that information [18:42] that we came here to collect as well as listen to the district attorney and what she had to say did you [18:47] get that report uh no not yet we we are working with them to say there need to be better communications [18:55] with the clients and so forth so the big things that we know there's going to be a grand jury uh into the [19:04] death of nolan wells and number two that we're going to have a mutual inspection of nolan's cell phone we [19:14] just want to make sure everybody else's cell phone is also being downloaded thank you