Quawan Charles: Victim to America’s Hidden Agenda

By: Aahana Agarwal

It’s necessary to deal with tragic cases of murder and kidnapping, but cases involving white victims are often taken more seriously than others, creating an unsafe environment for people of color. In the case of Quawan “Bobby” Charles, a Black teenager, the absence of police involvement may have been lethal. Charles went missing on Oct. 30, 2020, after being picked up by a friend and that friend’s mother. At only 15 years old, he was found dead several days later in a sugar cane field in Iberia Parish, Louisiana, 20 miles away from his house.

Despite the cuts and bruises on Charles’ body, police in the area said after an autopsy was conducted that he died of drowning. The teen’s parents requested an independent autopsy. While that autopsy also showed Charles’ injuries as being “consistent with drowning,’’ his parents were more concerned with the manner of death, which was undetermined. Doctors also found THC, metabolites, and alcohol in his system. While this implies that Janet Irvin, the woman who caused Quawan to leave his house, wasn’t involved in his death, it doesn’t excuse the fact that she and her son took him away from his home without parental permission. With minimal investigations when the case was first issued, law enforcers put little effort into finding out what really caused Charles’ death. Until Quawan’s family brought the case into the public and hired their own private investigator to collect evidence, the police didn’t take action to find out who killed Quawan. Their lack of concern serves as a sickening reminder of the invalidation of cases involving Black victims.

Because of the hard work of Charles’ family and attorney, Irvin was arrested. They were also quick to call out the incompetence of the local law enforcement in ensuring their son’s safety. No Amber Alert was sent out even though Charles was under the age of 17 and had been missing for almost four days. Had this been a different case where the police involved themselves as soon as they were notified of potential danger, Charles might have been found sooner. In a video of Janet Irvin, she said that Charles ran out of her home but she did not attempt to stop him or go after him. Upon realizing that he was missing, she also failed to notify law enforcement, further wasting valuable time to locate him. Her involvement in the situation and failure to look after a child in her care lowered his chances of survival. Irvin’s son also said that Charles smoked some weed at his house before running off. Even with knowledge of Irvin’s neglect in following Quawan and notifying the police, law enforcers didn’t act until much later. Irvin is now charged for “contributing to the delinquency of a minor and failure to report a missing child” as stated by the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office.

The police’s failure in not only bringing attention to this issue but also acting on it and issuing penalties for involved parties was called out by many individuals, including Beyonce and Alanah Odoms Hebert of the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana. Disheartened by the lack of interest in this serious case, they wish to provoke a more transparent investigation. Quawan “Bobby” Charles was an unfortunate victim of the law office’s views in deeming a person of color’s kidnapping less important. We must all work to change these outdated racist views, which decide people’s chances at being protected by the law, for they are only going to hold us back in the future.