Monument Circle will be the site of one of many peace walks to commemorate and honor the memory of Nolan Wells that have been planned across the country for Sunday, November 1. Organizers with the Indianapolis branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation and members of the Nolan Wells family call on the city to turn out and march at 12:00 pm on the Circle, bringing out Hoosiers who have been victims of the judicial system, police terror, and who denounce the racist system that is attempting to sweep 21-year-old Nolan Well’s disappearance and subsequent death under the rug.
Nolan Wells was a Mississippi resident who went missing after attending an Independence Day event at Horn Island, off the Mississippi Gulf Coast, with four of his friends. He was found dead two days later on the island’s shore. Mississippi ended its investigation into Wells’ death on September 21 with a grand jury unanimously concluding that there was no credible evidence against Wells’ friends of foul play, racial targeting, or criminal conduct. In its report, the grand jury said the evidence was consistent with an accidental drowning despite two autopsies – one by the state and another independent autopsy – labeling the cause and manner of death as “unknown,” with no water found in Wells’ stomach or lungs, according to attorney Liza Park, who serves on the team of the family attorney Ben Crump. Bruising was also found on the back of Wells’ skull as reported by Mississippi’s medical examiner.
As is often the case when Black men are killed in the United States, the family has been left with more questions than answers. Wells’ death is yet another page in the ongoing terror that Black Americans face in this country. The United States was born with the stain of chattel slavery, and despite emancipation and the Reconstruction Amendments, has maintained a racial apartheid system that relegates Black people to perpetual inferiority. Historically, law enforcement itself has pervasive anti-Black racial bias, which can result in tunnel vision and a rush to judgment when investigating incidents of suspicious Black deaths. In addition, medical examiners, who are charged with identifying the cause of death, are not governed by meaningful standards or oversight. This can lead to inadequate investigations or investigations tainted by racial bias.
A May 2026 audit of Maryland autopsies found that 36 deaths in police custody should have been considered homicides but instead were misclassified in autopsies. According to officials conducting the audit, medical examiners under Maryland’s former chief medical examiner were “unlikely to classify a death as a homicide if the decedent was Black, or if they died after being restrained by police.
Black victims’ families and loved ones understandably have requested independent autopsies in many of these incidents due to their deep mistrust of law enforcement and medical examiners’ findings. But more must be done. In 2026 alone, there have been at least 6 reported lynchings in the United States in addition to numerous suspicious deaths, like Nolan’s, and countless victims of police brutality, like Dalys Jett here in Indianapolis.
These deaths are a symptom of the larger disease that is anti-Black racism. Killings and deaths of Black men like these are an inevitable part of the continued racist rhetoric and historical inheritance of the system in this country. We demand a federal Justice Department investigation into Nolan’s death and the release of the complete investigative file, including the state’s autopsy report.
March alongside us as we meet in unity for justice for Nolan Wells and all others who are victims of the continued failings of the United States “justice” system. We ask that attendees wear either black and white for mourning or blue as this was Nolan’s favorite color.
Peace walk: Justice for Nolan Wells!
