Days after a GoFundMe was launched to support 18-year-old Nolan Wells’ family with funeral costs and to ease their financial burden, Byron Allen has made a large donation to the fundraiser, helping raise even more awareness about the teen’s death.
On Saturday (July 11), Allen donated $100,000 to the fundraiser, joining other notable donors, including comedian Lil Rel Howrey, Auburn football quarterback Deuce Knight and others. When theGrio first reported on the fundraiser on Monday, donations at the time had crossed over $100,000 and counting. Allen’s donation initially took the family’s GoFundMe across its goal of more than $500,000.
The donation comes hours after a Friday news conference where civil rights attorney Ben Crump and the Rev. Al Sharpton flanked Wells’ mother and father in updating those in attendance about who had come forth to aid them in their quest for accountability regarding their son’s death. Wells’ missing body was found on Horn Island in Mississippi on Monday, two days after he was reported missing following a boat outing with friends.
At the news conference, Crump said that Colin Kaepernick would pay for an independent autopsy for Wells and that film and television mogul Tyler Perry would cover the funeral costs.
Sharpton will officiate Wells’ funeral service.
“We just want to know what happened and why our baby didn’t come home,” Christine Wonsley said during the news conference.
The teen, who was a football player at Southwest Mississippi Community College in Summit, Mississippi, would have turned 19 next month. He hoped to one day transfer to a high-level Division 1 program and potentially reach the NFL.
As mourners grow by the day for the Mississippi teen, Wonsley urged people to lift her son’s name high and not with malice.
“Please be peaceful,” she said. “Nolan was not someone who liked fights, physical fights. He didn’t really like arguments. Don’t go out there trying to be tough. Think about what Nolan would want, and he wouldn’t want that type of behavior.”
