It has been almost a week since a Gwinnett County, Ga., teen was shot dead at a house party, and his family remains frustrated at the lack of progress in the case, WSB-TV reports.
“I find that hard to believe that within a week, there has been nothing uncovered,” Saviour Branch, the father of the teen, told the news station.
Jahlah Branch,17, was fatally shot over the weekend while at a house party early Saturday morning where about 100 teens were present. Local police say that they’re having a hard time with the investigation given that most witnesses ran from the house after the shooting. Some witnesses police have managed to talk to said there were multiple shooters.
Saviour Branch said some teens told him that his son was shot while shielding two young women from the gunfire after a fight broke out at the party.
“My son pushed one girl out of the way, and then her little cousin was just standing there. Jahlah just grabbed her and covered her, and that’s how he got shot,” he said.
Jahlah's family are also frustrated because they say they were not given access to the teen's body until three days after his death. They say they also believe that Jahlah was given a full autopsy, which goes against their religious beliefs. The Gwinnett County Medical Examiner's Office said its workers only removed the bullet that entered Jahlah's head, examining his brain and nothing else.
The family said they were initially told that investigators had made an arrest in the case, but Gwinnett police told the news station that they were still trying to round up witnesses and that no arrests have been made.
Jahlah, a standout athlete, had just returned home from a college football camp in Chicago. His parents, the news station notes, allowed him to go to the party to have fun after he had been concentrating so hard on his schoolwork and athletics.
“You never know if that’s the last time you’re going to see them,” Saviour Branch said.
Read more at WSB-TV.