COLOMBIA – Elijah Weatherspoon’s name ricocheted off the campus of one of South Carolina’s largest law enforcement agencies on Friday night, driven by a portable speaker by Elijah Whiteside, a teenager who never knew him in his life.
Weatherspoon, 18, drowned in the Cooper River near the Arthur Ravenel Jr. bridge on June 25. He was on a boat with eight other people – his body was recovered three days later near Sullivan’s Island.
Investigators said the North Charleston teenager jumped off the boat without a life jacket, and an autopsy concluded that he died of asphyxiation by drowning, but few other details about the reason were released.
“I imagine my mother two months later with absolutely no idea what happened to her son,” said Whiteside, a 17-year-old student at Fort Dorchester High School in North Charleston. “This is about justice for everyone, because there are other cases, especially in South Carolina, which are like the case of Elijah, without closure.”
Whiteside led a march along Broad River Road in Richland County on Friday night that stopped in front of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, where he and a group of about 20 other people demanded a payment. State authorities’ full accounts of the circumstances of Weatherspoon’s death, and they were furious that it took so long, although officials said the delay is not uncommon.
“We are not saying what happened. We are saying that we want a thorough and fair investigation,” said community activist Justin Hunt, a Charleston resident and founder of Stand As One, who organized the rally.
An SLED spokesman told the Post and the Courier earlier in the day that the case remains open as long as the authorities “conduct an independent, impartial, complete and thorough investigation”.
Investigations of boat deaths involve resources from the state’s Department of Natural Resources, which has six police officers assigned to work on boat deaths.
In July, the Post and Courier reported that in 2019, police investigated 14 deaths.
The meeting in front of the SLED headquarters on Friday was the last public effort for a full account of what happened exactly that night. There were also protests on the premises of SC Statehouse and at White Point Garden in downtown Charleston.
“Say his name,” Whiteside asked protesters through a megaphone. “Shout his name. Shout his name.”
Others waved Black Lives Matter flags or held up posters asking for Weatherspoon’s remembrance.
“Black justice is important,” shouted Whiteside.
Nearly 250,000 people signed an online petition launched by the Weatherspoon family demanding a full investigation into his death.
Hunt said his organization is in “constant contact” with Weatherspoon’s mother.
Follow Adam Benson on Twitter @ AdamNewshound12.