All language subtitles for Finding.Kendrick.Johnson.2021.WEBRip.x264

What made me think that
everything was, um,

a coverup was, for me,

as an experienced
homicide detective,

was just that first meeting
with the medical examiner.

Um, for you to relate to me

the way you ruled it
and why you ruled it,

a red flag goes up,
something is wrong.

Body parts are missing.

Evidence is missing.

That's another red flag.

In homicide cases,

even though everything
is not perfect,

but stuff just ain't missing
like that, that's evidence.

This is the first
case I can recall

where as we were, um,

on the task force to work
with the federal government

in a case that
far away from D.C.

Why do you think
that they did that?

Well, to my understanding, um,

they recused all of
the federal agencies

from being involved
in the cases,

therefore, an outside
agency like ourselves,

with homicide experience,

was perfect for
investigating the case.

Why would they
recuse themselves?

Because, in this
particular case,

the two persons who were
listed as persons of interest,

their father was an FBI agent.

It was just something
about that case

that just made me
feel as though,

because of who was involved,

you have a star athlete,

he was one of the Vale boys,

star athlete,

and the father's a
decorated FBI agent.

Um, something just wasn't right.

Snotty-nosed smiling.

Just busy.

He was smilin', always
doing something.

I rememember this
one right here,

when he lost his
teeth that time.

Didn't have no hair.

There goes those ears.

There's him doing
what he do best.

There's him running the ball.

- Here.
- Long time.

Time to take it
in the goal line.

Well, the body of a Lowndes
County High School student

still has investigators
putting together the pieces

of what took place.

The body was found in the gym

at Lowndes County High
School early Friday morning.

Now, Lowndes County
Sheriff Chris Prine

officially released the name

of the deceased individual today

as 17-year-old sophomore
Kendrick L. Johnson.

Johnson was reportedly
found in the gym

next to several rolled-up mats,

and suffered no gunshots
or trauma to his body.

Sheriff Prine says the
incident is slightly puzzling

but one the department
is working hard

to find answers for.

KJ is all...

My husband and all my children,

all their initials
start with K and a J.

I have three Kenneths for now.

That's my husband,
my oldest son,

and my grandson is
K... We call him K3.

And my daughter, she's Kenyetta.

So that's Kenneth Senior,
Kenneth Junior, um,

Kenyetta, Kendrick, and Kenya,

and my other
granddaughter, Kennedy.

All of them start with...
All of them are KJs.

And we use his initials,

we say that that
means King Jesus.

We are here at the school.

This is the story
of Kendrick Johnson.

After a four-year
undercover investigation

into the facts of this case,

our team has still
not found the evidence

to point the finger at a killer.

So at this time, we
don't know who killed KJ.

However, we have collected

a lot of facts and
pieces of evidence,

and we wanted to show
the public what we found

and let them make
up their own minds.

This is Kendrick's dad, Kenneth,

and his mom, Jackie Johnson.

They got married and have lived

in Valdosta, Georgia,
their entire lives.

Kenneth is a truck driver.

Together, he and Jackie
have raised a family

and an extended family
of many loved ones.

This is their oldest
daughter, Kenyetta Johnson.

This is Jackie's mother
and Kendrick's grandma.

And these are Kendrick's
aunts, Lydia and Stephanie.

They are the people
closest to Kendrick.

So to try to put a human
face on this situation,

we wanted to give them a chance

to finally tell their story.

Yeah, I'm a truck driver,

and I was coming out of
New York at the time.

And he called me
the day before that.

He said, uh, "Dad," uh,

he knew I was going
to get a truck.

He said, "Daddy, uh,
you got a truck?"

I said, "I'm on my
way to get it now."

I said, "I'll be home
on Saturday morning."

Then that was the
last conversation

that I talked to him,
it was about a truck.

Then, the next day,

that's when everything
started to happen, you know,

we can't get in
touch with Kendrick.

And after school was out,

I asked his bus driver
where was Kendrick.

And she was like, "Um, he
didn't ride home with me."

Once I got home, um, I
asked, um, my daughter.

They was asking, like, did
he call me or something.

They'd say, like,
"Was he stayin'?"

For a basketball game or
somethin' at the school.

And I was just like, "No."

So I called my husband.

You know, she said, "Have
you heard from Kendrick?"

And I said, "Not
heard from him today,"

which I normally do, you know,

by the end of the school
day he'll call me.

By then, we're worried.

So she came and got me and
we rode back to the school

and, like, rode back around
looking for him again.

And it got dark.

"Have you heard
from Kendrick yet?"

"No, I still ain't
heard from him."

And he said, "Yeah, go
on and call the police

because something ain't right."

So the sheriff's
department came and he...

The first thing he said, um,

"He's probably just
somewhere laid up

with some fast-tailed girl."

And I was like, "No, my
children know better.

On a school night, you be
in this house by 10:00.

Not 10:01, not 10:02, at 10:00."

And so he just took
the report and said,

"Well, I'll ride
around to the school

and around the blocks to
see if I see him anywhere."

So then I get in my truck

and I ride out to
the school house

and circle through the
school parking lot.

Still no Kendrick.

But by then, I know
something is terribly wrong

because it's,
like, almost 12:00.

12:00, I knew he was dead.

I got where I couldn't drive

because it started
to bother me so much.

So I pulled over and
I laid in my bed.

I said, "My son dead."

- I knew it.
- Down deep in my heart,

I knew Kendrick
was dead somewhere,

but I never would have
thought in a million years

at the school house and
in the manner that he was.

I didn't sleep at all.

That morning, she said,
"What do you want me to do?"

I said, "You go to
that school house."

I was at the school house at
8:00 seeing what happened,

had anybody seen Kendrick.

It was a lot of people that
were in and out of the gym.

So I went to the front door,

whatever, but they
wouldn't let me in.

One of the other
resource officers,

she comes up to me.

And I asked her, I said,

"Is that my son that they
just found in the gym?"

And she was like, "Yes."

And I just lost it.

Then, all of a sudden,
she start hollerin'

and screamin' and cryin'.

And it just went
downhill from there.

They pulled down the mat
and his legs and feet

were hanging out of the mat.

He wasn't moving.

And the smell, it
was... It smelled bad.

You could smell it.

The shock had, you
know, left us all,

and we'd realized that
one of our classmates

had died in our school
right beneath us.

I'm in the middle of traffic
driving, um, across town.

So, she say, "They found
a body at the school

and it's Kendrick, you
need to get to Jackie."

So I said, "Where's my sister?"

What I didn't... oh, uh-uh.

I can't do this.

I can't... I cannot do this.

After they told us
that, I was just empty.

I didn't really feel
nothing at the time.

I stopped in the
middle of the road

and I just screamed.

And I... I talked
to this detective

and I said, "What happened?"

She said, "Something
is on Kendrick's head."

That's all she told me.

And then she hung the phone up.

Police told us that it was him.

And all the kids was
steady changing classes.

And I guess, by then, it
hit the news or Facebook.

All these kids were just
mulling around the building.

It was basically a crime scene.

- Oh yeah.
- And they hadn't treated it

like that, and they were
telling you that he was dead.

And everyone was still at
the school walking around.

Mm-hm, they were switching
classes and everything

as my mom was out there,
like, screaming and crying.

And one sheriff
even came in there,

resource officer from
the sheriff's department,

and he was like, "What
are you screaming for?

We don't even know
if that's KJ."

And I was like, "Has anybody
else reported their child dead?

Do he have dreads?"
And he was like, "Yes."

I said, "So you know
that's my child."

Did they take you to him?

No, they never let
us see him at all.

I saw my sister sitting
in a wheelchair.

My sister looked like
she was out of it.

My sister looked like
somebody had drugged her.

Looked like somebody...

Looked like life was
just taken out of her.

They tried to show my daughter
a picture of a tennis shoe

of a way of identifying him.

Well, they let me
identify him by a shoe.

They didn't let my
mama identify him.

It was like the orange...
Yeah, it was his orange shoe

and one of the black
shoes, they both was clean.

Not long after that,
the sheriff came in.

"Well, we don't... we
don't find any foul play."

Well, that was
real quick for me.

- The day of.
- The day of.

Just within the last 15 minutes,

we saw several vehicles
with investigators inside

coming on and
leaving the campus.

The information surrounding
their classmate's death

stopped the school
in its tracks.

Everybody was quiet.

We went to lunch and
there was not a word said.

You could walk outside
and hear a pin drop.

I'm not sure if it's hit me yet.

We're all going through this
and we'll get through it.

I'm very thankful.

I'm thankful it wasn't my son.

Not knowing what happened,

you just wonder, you know,

how people might retaliate or...

It's just scary.

The sheriff's office and
Lowndes County Schools

had this to say:

"Nothing has been discovered

to indicate foul
play was involved."

When I tell ya, I
remember this like it...

Just, like, vivid, like it
happened just yesterday.

My sister let out a cry.

She said, "Y'all killed my son.

Y'all killed my son."

I was up on...

Up there on 81.

I think it was in
their master plans

not to have me here.

Because if I was here,

it wouldn't have
went down like that.

I would have viewed
my son's body.

There wasn't nothing
they could have done

that they could've kept
me out of that gym.

Investigators say on Thursday

Johnson didn't show up to
his fourth period class.

Friday morning,
he was found dead

inside a rolled-up gym mat.

These mats, to describe
'em just a little bit,

they're actually
very large floormats,

but when you roll 'em up,

of course, it creates a circle

and leaves an
opening in the middle

that's approximately
two foot wide.

Investigators say it appears
Johnson was on top of mats

that were standing upright
when he possibly fell

or reached inside
the hole of the mat

to get a shoe and got stuck.

From the evidence that we found,

this is not a murder.

It appears just to be a
terrible, terrible tragedy

that resulted in a young
man losing his life.

All I can say is that
until an autopsy is done

we cannot determine
the cause of death.

There does not appear to be, uh,

any trauma to the body.

How can you fall over
in a wrapped-up mat?

Still overcome with
grief and anger,

these distraught family members

are now asking the community
for prayers and support.

Everything was different.

In what way?

We had... we usually
would post up,

like, right in front of, uh,

in front of E Wing,

where all the kids
would be there

in between classes.

We all post up there normally.

Okay, so after KJ passed away,

we started having
two officers post up.

So KJ dies and then
they send officers

- to your spots.
- Yeah, they start...

Start doing a lot
of crazy stuff, man.

Let's do a quick breakdown
of the early key facts.

Kendrick was found upside down,

rolled in a gym mat around
10:30 AM on January 11th.

He went missing the day before

at approximately 1:20 PM on
video cameras in this gym.

Kendrick is 5'10",

and the gym mat he supposedly
went into head first

is six feet tall.

Kendrick's shoulders
measured 19 inches,

and according to the
police's own incident report,

the opening of the mat
measured 14 inches.

But the sheriff's
office is somehow saying

he fit his body into
the mat and got stuck

while trying to retrieve a shoe

at the bottom of the mat.

There was a pool of blood
under Kendrick's head

when they moved the mat,

but somehow the shoe they
claimed he was going for

is perfectly clean and
doesn't have a thing on it.

I knew it was, you know,
something shady was going on

from the very beginning.

From the very beginning.

And so that's when it
came down to the rally.

We had a rally downtown
at the courthouse.

A lot of people showed up.

News media showed up.

And we demanded
that Kendrick's body

do not leave Lowndes County

till me or his mother
identified his body.

Hour and a half later,
um, I get a phone call.

He said, "Well, come
down to the crime lab."

We walked in, first
thing I said on my mind,

"Damn, it's kind
of hot in here."

Then I thought to
myself, I said,

"Well, maybe I'm
a little nervous

about what I'm finna see."

When they pulled the drawer out,

instead of a gush of
cool air come out,

a gush of hot air come out.

And I'm like, "Damn, what
the hell going on here?"

I didn't say nothin'.

They took the bag,
unzipped the bag.

All the way... All the
way down to his foot.

And I looked at my son.

I looked at the detective,
I said, "Clearly," I said,

"You can see clearly
that he was in a fight."

I said, "Man, look at his face."

I said, "Look at one side
of his face swole up."

How they had Kendrick arm,

is he was like this.

In the bag?

Yeah, in the bag.

They wouldn't even
put his arms down?

No, no, he was... He
had his arm like this.

When they opened the bag up?

When they opened the bag up,

he was lying just like this,

and he had one arm here.

When I seen Kendrick
in the crime lab,

I thought they picked
Kendrick up off the floor

like that, right?

Until I... till later on,

we started getting
the crime scene...

We got the crime scene photo.

We were called over to
the house to see, um,

a picture of Kendrick.

When the lady went to put it,

we seen that picture
of KJ on the end there.

That was the worst day of
my life, like, oh my Lord.

It felt like I
was losing my mind

when I seen KJ
disfigured like that,

but I had to think

that was just something
they put out there

and it just made me
push a little bit harder

for Kendrick.

Yeah, you gave me this, and
this is what I'm gonna do,

I'm gonna give it back to y'all.

And every chance I get,

I share that photo
of what they did.

I'll never let them forget
that's my child right there.

When the images of KJ were
released to the public

and his mother shared
them over and over,

many people connected
what was happening

to the story of Emmett Till.

It was August 1955

when the 14-year-old was sent
to the South for the summer.

One day on the street,

a white woman created a
terrible rumor about Emmett

that he had touched her
and tried to rape her.

That night, the woman's
husband and his friend

went to Emmett's house in
the middle of the night,

dragged him out of bed,
and then murdered him

and left him for dead.

Emmett's mother bravely
decided to have an open casket

and show the world what
these two men did to her son.

The two men were put
on a very public trial

and found not guilty
by an all-white jury.

The clear injustice
and grotesque images

of Emmett seen around the world

became a tipping point
for civil rights.

White America could
no longer ignore

the ongoing terror
of Black America.

The release of Emmett's
photos even today

is seen as one of the
most important moments

in American history.

And here's the sad kicker.

Sixty years later, the
lady finally admitted

that Emmett didn't touch
her and did nothing wrong.

We've all heard
the gory details,

that he whistled at her,

that he made a sexual
advance towards her.

And all these years later,
she says what to you?

She said, uh, with
respect to the, um,

it had been a physical
assault on her

or anything menacing or sexual,

that that part isn't true.

Lynchings in the South
were such a regular

and accepted part of the culture

that they became
public entertainment.

Crowds would gather
as if it were a parade

or social gathering.

They would bring their
blankets and picnic lunches.

As the gruesome event
played out in front of them,

the lynchers would make
sure they put on a good show

so the public wouldn't leave.

They would drag out the torture

to the crowd's delight.

Once dead, the body
would normally be burned,

swinging over the
children and dogs

as they played below.

And to capture the moment,

souvenirs and postcards
were created and sold.

And these postcards
can still be found

in the homes of
Southerners today.

Some of the postcards
tell you where to write

and the discount you'll get

if you buy one,
10, or a hundred.

That man made 50,000
prints of that photo

and sold them for
50 cents apiece

before the governor
of the state, uh,

got him to stop printing.

To illustrate how common
and widely accepted

youth lynching was in
America before Emmett Till,

all we need to do is
look at the murder

of Ernest Green
and Charlie Lang.

In 1942, the lynching of
these two Black youths

made big news because of
the image of their bodies

with the noose still
around their necks.

Just like Emmett,

these two teens were
also falsely accused

of interactions
with a white girl.

They were thrown in jail,

then taken from their
cells by a white mob,

then brought to a bridge nearby

that was used so
often for lynchings

the town called it
The Hanging Bridge.

The New York Times was sent
the images and the report,

and they buried the story,

refused to run the photo,

and put it on page 24.

This is a part of
American history

that most Americans
still haven't dealt with.

Its legacy lives on today

with the nearly
daily documentation

of Black people killed for
seemingly minor events,

like selling cigarettes,
walking in the street,

playing with a toy gun,
or wearing a hoodie.

So when a 17-year-old
is found dead,

rolled up in a gym mat,

with his death going
unanswered by law enforcement,

we have to remember
that this incident

didn't just happen in a bubble.

It is connected to a
long and ongoing history

of devaluing Black
lives in this country.

They said, "We heading
down to the corner."

I said, "Well, what
corner we going down to?"

"Down to the corner, downtown."

And from that day,

my sister stayed down
there on that corner.

Sun up, sun down.

Rain, hail, sleet, and snow.

- No justice!
- Supporters of Johnson's family

have held rallies,
alleging a coverup.

They've demanded a
federal investigation.

Our family would get
together every day

and we went down to
Lowndes County Courthouse

and stood there and we asked,
"What if this was your child?

Who killed Kendrick?"

- We're fired up!
- Ready to go!

Supporters for Kendrick's family

are calling for a Department
of Justice investigation.

- What do you want?
- Justice!

The Johnsons and
their supporters

now hope the FBI will get
an answer to their question.

What happened to
Kendrick Johnson?

There was a major
coverup going on

and we want to
expose that coverup.

For four days, Malika Mahogany

and a dozen members
of the community

walked 17 miles a day
from Atlanta to Valdosta

to symbolize the 17 years
of Kendrick Johnson's life.

I actually wanted to come here

and present them with demands.

They won't allow us to.

When protestors got to
Lowndes High School,

they were greeted by the Lowndes
County Sherriff's Department,

- including the sheriff.
- If they want to address

anything to do with
Kendrick Johnson,

in this case, they can
address it by U.S. mail.

According to the sheriff,

the school did not want any
letters from the protestors

and asked that they be
kept off school property.

How would you feel if
your son went to school

and never came home,
never returned home?

And then the next
day you found out

he was rolled up in a gym mat.

My thing is to let people
know that they have a voice.

They don't have to be silent.

They don't have to be
scared to fight no more.

They can speak out.

One lady said, "You
guys need to get a job."

I said, "I got two!"

Yeah, we got a job,

but this is also our job too,

so don't get it twisted.

On Facebook, Johnson's father
posted this picture of himself,

wondering how anyone could
squeeze into a gym mat.

Supporters from around
the world writing,

"I smell a cover up,"

and, "This case makes no sense."

I've never met anybody as
strong as she is in my life.

I have never met
someone like her.

It's just unbelievable.

I mean...

They killed the wrong
child this time.

We ain't goin' nowhere.

Nowhere.

My baby's life matter.

- We want justice!
- Hundreds have rallied

for a federal investigation
and the Department of Justice

is reviewing the case.

No matter who you are,

how much money
your parents have,

the color of your skin,

everyone deserves
justice. Everyone.

Seven of us even took
it upon ourselves

to get... bring more
awareness, and we went to jail,

we stood and blocked
the courthouse doors

and would not let anybody in.

This is the mother
and the father

of Kendrick Johnson.

They are marching to...

Lowndes County
Judicial Building.

This is not a game, this
is serious business.

I was thinking, I was
like, "I could lose my job.

Um, people will be upset
with me about this."

But then I thought about it.

This is my sister,
this is my nephew.

So we had to make some noise.

So, civil disobedience.

We went there with
a sole purpose

of bringing some attention
to what was really going on,

some national attention.

Went right up to the front
of the courthouse door

with locked arms.

Wouldn't let nobody in.

And, uh, they're
trying to get out,

you know, and try
to break us apart.

Then you see people
trying to go in,

trying to go in the building,

and they couldn't go in
because Jackie wouldn't move.

Nobody would move.

And that thing just
did something to me,

and I was like, "Okay."

So then I saw the
police officers,

the sheriffs, the
deputies come out.

They was pullin' and tuggin'

and just bein' real rough.

Okay, you understand
you can let go

or you're gonna be
arrested, Jackie.

Is that what you're
wanting to do?

Cameras are watchin',
cameras are watchin'.

You can't drag his mother.

You cannot drag his
mother and father, sir.

Let him off, let him
off, let him off.

Go willingly, go willingly,

- go willingly.
- Let him off, let him off.

- Thank you.
- Come on in, please.

They got Keisha,
then they got me.

And they told me,

"You want everybody to
go to jail out there?"

They are taking
them into custody,

they are taking 'em
away from my sight.

They have not put
'em in handcuffs,

but they're taking
them to the back.

I said, "Man, y'all gotta
do what y'all gotta do today

because we ain't goin' nowhere."

But my sister was standing
up there by herself

and I was standing right down
on the steps watching her.

'Cause I was saying,
"If anything pop off,

then, yep, I'm going
to jail for that."

But then I thought about it.

Somebody fought for
us back in the days,

back in the '50s,
'60s, you know,

so somebody fought for us.

Somebody stood up.

If we don't stand
up for ourselves

then nobody else will.

I said, "I don't know what..."

I said, "I don't know
what I'm doin'," I said,

"but I'm finna go, I'm
gonna go up there."

I said, "I gotta stand
up there with her.

I can't leave her
hanging by herself."

And I went up there
and I stood with her.

So, um, they moved us from
the outside to the inside

and we blocked the scanners.

I want everybody to see
you taking his mother.

Yes, the mother of
the man that was slain

at Lowndes County High School.

And waiting for answers.

A mother!

A mother!

This is serious.

- A grandmother!
- This is not a game.

And we took, I think,
about three steps.

And when we took that last step,

that one deputy,

he pulled my sister
and twisted her arm.

And it was like chaos.

They took us and they
rushed us to the back.

Don't... no resist, no resist!

Drop! Drop! Drop! Drop!

Drop to the floor!

No justice! No peace!

This is Lowndes County, Georgia,

Valdosta,

Title Town, USA.

Home of Moody Air Force Base,

Cypress Lake.

This is where we live.

Yesterday, the family and
friends of Kendrick Johnson

protested in front of the
Lowndes County Courthouse,

and they were protesting
because there was no information

about Kendrick Johnson.

Now, the protesters
were arrested,

and the protesters
who were arrested

were Kendrick's
father and mother,

Jacqueline and Kenneth Johnson.

Now they have all been charged
with misdemeanor interference

with government property.

And tonight, Jackie
Johnson is out on bail.

The white man is
running everything here.

As long as it's
not a white person

getting killed or shot up,

they do not care in this city.

Well, the history of Valdosta,

it's always been
this racist town.

Two people, Black and the
white person do the same thing.

White person goes,
gets sent home.

Black person in jail.

Every time you want
to say something,

they snatch that chain.

That means be quiet.

And what do a lot of them do

here in this town
that I know of?

A lot of them be quiet.

People can't say what
they want to say.

Customers not wanting, you know,
Black people to wait on 'em.

I've experienced that
several times over the years

and still experience it today.

And it's just sad,

but that's just the way
it is here in Valdosta.

When the news broke of
this death from Atlanta,

like many in America, we
thought it was near Atlanta.

But after doing some research,

we quickly realized that
Valdosta and Atlanta

are two separate worlds.

Valdosta is the Deep South,

very close to the
Florida Panhandle,

a place where Confederate
flags still fly high and proud

alongside statues of
Confederate leaders.

The roots of racism
run deep here.

Lowndes County,
where Valdosta is,

became famous in the early 1900s

for one of the most
heinous acts of lynching

in the history of our country.

Mary Turner's baby was
cut out her stomach,

the white man cut
it out her stomach,

and the baby fell to the
ground while she was hanging

and he stomped her.

In 1918, Mary
Turner and her baby

were brutally killed
here in Lowndes County,

and their story
became worldwide news.

Mary's husband had been lynched

and she had spoken
out against it.

For speaking her truth,

an angry, racist mob
tracked her down.

They tied her up,
cut her stomach out,

ripped her baby out, and
stomped on the baby's head.

Then they lynched Mary.

These are the stories
of this region,

and when you look closely

you find the history of Valdosta

and the history of racism in
this country go hand-in-hand.

Valdosta was originally created
because the railroad company

was building across
Southern Georgia.

There was no city where
the stop would be,

so they put one
there and named it

after the governor's plantation
where he kept all his slaves.

Due to the railroad stop,

Valdosta became a
central hub of commerce

to trading food,
goods, services,

and, of course, slaves.

Shortly after the Civil War,

an event called The Clift
Affair made big news.

A republican politician
by the name of Clift

was garnering support
of freed slaves

by speaking out against
white supremacy.

This angered the
whites of Valdosta.

So on the day of the event,

the local KKK chapter
set five bombs

to go off in the crowd,

but one went off.

No one was hurt,

but the news of the
attempted bombing

reached far and wide,

and Valdosta was at
the center of it.

Valdosta made worldwide
news once again

because of their horrible
killing in 1918 of Mary Turner.

In 1922, this now
famous group shot

of the Valdosta KKK
chapter was released.

And in 2018, workers at
the local Jimmy John's

made news when a
video surfaced online

of them playing with a KKK
outfit inside the store.

And on the anniversary
of Mary Turner's death,

her memorial was
shot up with bullets.

Although Black Americans are
the majority of the town,

making up more than
50% of the population,

political power is
still concentrated

in the hands of the whites.

This minority wills its
control with a vice-like grip

that keeps the Black majority

under a constant
state of terror.

They did what we
wanted them to do,

arrested us.

That was gonna bring
a lot of attention

to what was going
on, and it did.

We got what we wanted.

We got the attention
that we wanted.

Part of the problem
the family had

with the sheriff's department

was the way they actually
investigated the crime,

or rather the way they
didn't investigate.

The coroner even said that,

"If y'all unrolled him,

why did you all re-roll
him up again in the mat?"

Trying to position
him in the way

they wanted him
to be positioned.

- For the photograph.
- For the photograph.

But always... you're gonna
always miss something.

Coroner Bill Watson
was called to the scene

five hours after
detectives had arrived,

although Georgia law
requires investigators

to call the coroner as
soon as a body is found.

The body had been moved.

The scene, in my opinion,
had been compromised.

It's a very
time-consuming process

to basically work your
way from the outside in.

Once our investigators
got to the deceased,

the coroner was
contacted immediately.

We also received
an email from him

a few days after our
interview on camera

in which he told us that.

I want to put up part
of the email, Anderson.

And he writes in that email:

Several key pieces of
evidence at the scene

have a number of
strange inconsistencies.

The first pieces of evidence
that don't make sense

are all the sneakers in the gym,

specifically three pairs
catch our attention.

The first pair,

black sneakers with orange
laces that were found,

were not even KJ's.

However, they appeared
to have blood on them.

They found another
pair of tennis shoes

at the crime scene,
they didn't take 'em.

They found blood on
the wall in the gym,

- they didn't test it.
- Orange and black gym shoes

investigators found just
yards from Kendrick's body.

But investigators say
tests show the stains

are something other than blood,

so the shoes were not collected
as potential evidence.

If you were on this scene,

would this have been
something you would have left?

No, bag and tag.

The second two pairs of
sneakers in the gym were KJ's,

but their placement
and condition

tell a story that
is very different

than the official
cause of death given.

The shoes that
were under his head

was the shoes that
he always changed in.

But the shoes that were
threw in behind him

were the tennis
shoes that he had on,

the Griffin tennis
shoes that were his,

what he wore in the gym.

Kendrick had vomited
and everything.

They got pictures and everything

of the vomit and the blood.

But where's the blood
on the tennis shoe?

And where's the vomit
on the tennis shoe?

- Why didn't he have shoes on?
- It was like Kendrick

was lying down flat
somewhere, the mat was...

As they rolled him up,
they threw those shoes

and then they rolled
the mat on up,

because Kendrick's
legs are twisted.

You go down in a mat
trying to get something,

you're not gonna twist your
legs up in a mat going down.

If he was reaching for the shoe,

why is it on top of him
if he's reaching for it?

In statements released

by Lowndes County
Sherriff's Office,

students wrote, "We
always leave our shoes

inside the mats during class,

but to retrieve the shoes
we tilt the mats over

and get the shoes
from the bottom."

The shoes are never
actually inside the mat.

When you put your
shoes in there,

you toss 'em over the
mats, because there's like,

probably, like, I wanna say
six or seven other mats.

And there's a whole area
behind it where there's no mat.

You don't climb over the mats.

All you do is move this
mat out of the way,

you go and get your shoes,
and you come back around.

That's how everybody does it.

When they said he climbed
inside the mat to get the shoes,

I already knew that was a lie.

You can't get inside the mat

because it's wrapped tight
and the hole is but so big.

The medical examiner explained
that more than likely

he threw the shoe... The
shoes down in the mat,

more than likely he tried
to retrieve his shoes

in the mat and got stuck.

The mat is... is most definitely
deeper than... than my height,

so how am I gonna get back out?

Why I just can't knock the
mat over to get my shoes?

And what did she say?

She said, "Well, based on... ".

Based on what was told to her
on what kids would normally do,

that they would throw
their shoes in the mat

and they would go down in
the mat while the mats are up

to get... to retrieve the shoes.

Well, I'm like, "Well,
how many other kids

have died doing that?"

And I told her, I said,
"You have not given me

one fact yet about how he died."

Because once... once you
make a ruling accidental,

then all investigative
purposes basically stop

because you done made your
ruling this was an accident,

so therefore nothing
else is gonna be done.

Based on my experience and all
the doctors I've worked with,

they made their decisions
based on facts, no theories.

Had you ever experienced
that before in your career?

No, never, and I've been...

I've investigated
homicides for 23 years.

I've never had a doctor tell me

based on their theory
they gonna make a ruling.

Just for me to hear
her say "theory"

sort of got to me

because I've been to
a lot of autopsies,

and, um, if they were not
facts, a ruling was not made.

Because if doctors are not sure,

they normally leave
it undetermined.

Cases can be left
undetermined for years.

They also found a
hoodie that was not KJ's

but appeared to maybe
have blood on it as well.

Look real close,

there's something on
this particular cuff.

And then the question is: Was
it blood? Did you test it?

According to the
crime lab report: No.

The last piece of
evidence that is glaring

is all the blood
found on the wall.

Here's what Lowndes County
Lieutenant Stryde Jones

told CNN about that wall in May.

And we tested it
and it was blood.

And then we did DNA testing
and it was not the blood

of Kendrick Johnson.

If it wasn't Kendrick's
blood, whose blood was it?

Did you ever find out who
it was or any involved...

No, as of now, we haven't, no,

but it doesn't appear to
be related to our crime

- in any way.
- There's one, two,

three, four, five six.

Six impacts.

But beyond all this evidence,

the shoes, the blood,
the position of the body,

there's still one
bit of evidence

that was unquestionable.

The closed-circuit TV cameras.

At least they should
have been unquestionable,

but as with most
evidence in this case,

there seems to be issues.

FBI agents will be at Lowndes
High School, likely today,

to seize the hard drives
from the surveillance system

- at Lowndes High School.
- I saw...

Kendrick walking in the gym.

Then, all of a
sudden, he's gone.

There is hole of time
where none of the cameras

provide any record that...
that I've been provided.

But there was, like, seconds
missing from the tape.

And that really sort of...

Sort of got me thinking like,

"Hold on for a minute.

Am I the only one
that noticed this?"

And I was just disturbed on

why is there seconds missing?

There are four cameras in
the gym that records motion

from when the lights
turn on in the morning

until when the lights
are turned off at night,

except for the area of interest.

The moments before Kendrick
Johnson enters the gym.

Look at what happens
to the recordings

from these four
cameras in the gym.

The time is recorded
with the video.

The first camera captures images

from the start of the
day until 12:04 PM.

Then, nothing.

And picks up again at 1:09 PM.

There's consistent surveillance

from the second
camera until 11:05 AM,

then it stops and picks up again

more than two hours
later at 1:15 PM.

The third camera also
drops at 11:05 AM.

It picks up again at 1:16 PM.

And from the final camera,

there's surveillance
until 12:04 PM,

no recording for
more than an hour,

then it picks up
again at 1:09 PM.

Here's why Fredericks
would have expected

the motion-activated system
to record during that time.

During that hour
and five minutes,

several students are seen

walking into and
out of the old gym,

from the surveillance camera
just outside the gym door.

We count seven male students,

and three of them
walk into the gym

within three minutes prior to
Kendrick Johnson walking in.

When surveillance in
the gym resumes at 1:09,

we see just these few frames

of Kendrick Johnson
running in the gym.

Here's that moment
from all of the cameras

in the gym, although there's
a record from only two,

and the camera just
outside the door.

Notice the hall camera timestamp

appears to be 10 minutes behind

and there's no confirmation

either time matches
the exact time of day.

It is the last time his
image is captured on video.

We got people in the
gym playing basketball

on one of the cameras,

but over there
where the mats were,

when that part
appeared on the camera,

no one is over there.

And I'm like, "Where
did Kendrick go?"

So people were trying to explain
to us that it's their system,

it's the old system,
it's just how it works.

To go there and to
find out that they have

all of these different
cameras working,

and everything is not working,

but there are a lot of
cameras that are working,

but the parts that we need
to work are not working.

For the next hour,
there are multiple gaps

in the video
surveillance in the gym,

and there's no videos
showing the initial discovery

of a body in the gym.

The next time we
see Kendrick Johnson

is the following day when
he's being wheeled out

of the gym in a body bag.

I used to work at
that high school.

I used to be a
substitute teacher.

And I did that for
about 12 years.

There's a camera
everywhere you go

from every angle.

They caught me
one day, you know,

roaming the halls
during planning period.

Yes, I was.

Uh, so I know it
could have caught...

It could have caught something.

But when we see the tapes,

it's kids playing basketball,

it's kids horseplaying.

Can you tell me why

nobody there see Kendrick
go get in the mat

when there's a gym full of kids?

Can you tell me why?

It's just so obvious.

It's the second time
Jacqueline Johnson cried

next to her son
Kendrick's grave.

The first time, he was being
lowered into the ground.

In June, Kendrick's body
was sent to Florida.

The Johnsons hired
Dr. Bill Anderson

to conduct an independent
second autopsy.

I'm a forensic pathologist.

I've been actually
practicing over 40 years

in the field of
forensic pathology

and pathology in general.

And one of the things that
immediately stuck out was, uh,

the findings in the lungs.

Now, in a positional asphyxia,

where someone is trapped

in something where
they can't breathe,

they fight for breath, so forth,

and over a period of time,

their muscles begin to
wear out, essentially,

so they're not
breathing as well.

And this causes, basically,
the heart to start failing

and fluid to build
up in the lungs,

and get more and more fluid,

and this basically
suffocates them.

Well, in Kendrick
Johnson's case,

the lungs not only
had no fluid in them

but they were basically normal.

The diagnosis of
positional asphyxia,

if you're gonna
make that diagnosis,

when you look at the lungs
under the microscope,

you can see the
fluid in the lungs.

When you look at the
weights of the lungs,

which are normally around
250 grams and 280 grams,

they will be much heavier,
three to four times that weight.

Well, Kendrick's were
actually normal weight.

So, according to the
state's own documents,

- which you have, right?
- Correct.

His lungs weighed
the normal weight.

Absolutely, that was... in fact,

that was the first red flag

that was there that
caught my attention.

So if you find this
dichotomy, basically,

then you have to figure
out, well, what was it?

Was it something else
that was going on?

But in the absence of
the lungs being heavy,

you cannot make the diagnosis
of positional asphyxia.

So, because of that,
then we decided,

"Well, all right, we don't
have any information."

So we decided we would go ahead

and exhume the body and
do a second autopsy.

Digging him up...

It's just unexplainable
to stand there and watch,

you know, your child coming
back out of the ground again.

Well, we opened the body,
in this particular case,

and the organs were not there.

Uh, the body had... basically,
paper had been stuffed

into the cavity to fill it up,

and so the organs actually
were not in the body at all.

Every organ from the
top of Kendrick's head

- to his pelvis, gone.
- When I found out

the organs were missing, um,

I was like, "How
is that possible?"

Because I've sat
through many autopsies

and the organs are
taken out, examined,

and they're placed in a bag.

Everything...
everything you take out

you put inside of a bag.

Then once it's back
inside of the bag,

the body is sewed up.

So everything is put
back inside the victim.

Have you ever opened
a body in 40 years

and had that happen to you?

It was unexpected for a
medical examiner case.

President of the National
Association of Medical Examiners

who told CNN he's, "Never
heard of this practice."

You see cuts there by his nails.

Yeah, I see those cuts right.

You see these cuts.

This goes in line with
the family's theory

that there was a fight.

This is indicative of
something that is fresh.

These are not healing insults
or injuries that he has.

These little areas
right here are...

So that'd be close
to time of death?

Yeah, absolutely, and I'm
finding it very interesting

that these are what we
refer to as curvilinear.

These could be consistent
with fingernail marks.

The attorney for the
funeral home who says, yes,

those clothes did make
it to the funeral home,

a couple of days later
I got an email saying,

"No, we never
received the clothes."

A spokeswoman for the state
tells CNN after its autopsy,

"The organs were placed
in Johnson's body,

the body was closed,

then the body was released
to the funeral home."

State investigators say

it's their normal practice.

It's a Black Friday ad,

JC Penny ad.

Yes.

Stuffin' that newspaper in
like he was a garbage can.

From what was left,

what could you derive?

So, what we did, we still
had the rest of the body,

so we looked for other injuries

that might have been overlooked

or not dissected

during the first autopsy,

something that might
conceivably result in

an explanation for
why this child,

who has supposedly died
of positional asphyxia

had normal lungs.

So, what we did, we continued,

basically, to look up
near the angle of the jaw,

underneath the jaw.

At that point, we found
an area of bleeding,

hemorrhage,

which had not been described.

This particular area
happens to be very close,

in fact, involving,

a nerve structure

called the carotid sinus.

And the carotid
sinus, basically,

controls blood pressure.

And the idea is if blood
pressure goes too high,

the carotid sinus will,
basically, sense that

and slow the heart rate.

Well, one of the other ways
you can slow the heart rate is

severe compression of the
area around the carotid sinus,

and that has even resulted
in people dying suddenly.

And this was
distinctly different

from all the other
tissue around it,

so it appeared to be

due to blunt force
trauma to the area.

So, we basically had
absolute proof that this was

a hemorrhage in that area,

in an area that if
pressure is applied,

could result in sudden death.

Well, this would make things
a little more reasonable

as far as explaining why

you have the lungs

having no fluid

because, obviously, it
would mean he was dead

when he was put in the gym mat.

According to the
paramedics' report,

there was bruising
noted to right side jaw.

The parents hired their
own medical examiner,

who said this was a killing,

blunt force trauma to the neck.

A major victory for
a mother and father

desperate for answers
about their son.

For ten months,

those parents have
searched for answers.

And tonight, two
major developments.

Federal prosecutors now
saying they will investigate.

A federal prosecutor
in Georgia said today

he will conduct a formal review
into the death of a teenager

whose body was found
in his high school gym.

First, what was the cause

of Mr. Johnson's death?

Second, was Mr. Johnson's
death the result of a crime?

Third, if Mr. Johnson's death
was the result of a crime,

who committed that crime?

I will follow the
facts wherever,

wherever they lead.

Huddled around a
portable television

on the South Georgia
street corner,

where they've staged
an eight-month sit-in,

the family of Kendrick Johnson
watched the announcement

- they've been waiting for.
- Hallelujah!

- Thank you, Jesus!
- Thank you, Jesus!

Justice for KJ is coming!

Kendrick's family is grateful
for the investigation,

but they call it
a stepping stone.

They say their push for
answers will continue.

Got to continue to fight on

'till justice is done for KJ.

As the investigation heated up

and students began
to be subpoenaed,

the story of KJ and
the Bell brothers

started circulating
the community.

There had definitely
been some problems.

A brief fight between Brian
and Kendrick on a team bus.

A year before, I mean,

- we were still friends.
- What was it about, anyway?

I can't even remember.

I mean, it was so, it
was so small to us.

I remember the fight.

He called me at the school.

We was on a bus trip

for a playoff game,

and Brian, you know, the
kind of person he is,

he jokin' around, he playin'.

But when he's playin',
he's playin' rough.

You know what I'm saying?

Kinda almost like a bully.

So, him and KJ are sittin'
together in the back seat,

and he grabbed his dreads,

and he hold his head
down with his dreads,

and he's laughin',

and he's pickin' at him.

So, when KJ get up,

and he get his hands
off of his dreads,

they start fightin'.

I was in the seat
right in front of them.

Seen the whole thing.

Anybody, anybody in that
situation is gonna fight.

So, they got to fightin'.

He got the best of him.

- KJ?
- Brian, yeah, Brian.

Brian ain't like that too much.

After that fight,

they made KJ go and ride in the,

in the deputy's car.

But they let Brian sit in
the stand with his parents

and watch the game.

Kendrick came home one
day, he said, "Dad."

I said, "Yeah?"

He said, "You know how
you can be standin' up,

you know, you can be
standin' up doin' somethin',

and you just feel
somebody lookin' at you?"

I said, "Yeah."

He said, "Well, I turned around"

and seen Brandon starin' at me.

Just standin' there
starin' at me.

And I been hearin' he's
tellin' people at school

"that it's not over."

He said, "But I ain't
worried about it."

He said, "I wish he would
say somethin' to me!"

So, one other day,

Kendrick came home, he
said, "You know Rick Bell",

Brian's daddy,

came up to me at school?

He said, he told me that
the fight was on the bus

wasn't a fair fight.

That I should come
over to their house

"and re-fight Brian."

So, I said, "Kendrick,
what'd you say?"

He said, "I looked at
him like he was crazy,

and I turned around
and walked off."

But you're an FBI agent,

you're supposed to make sure
stuff goin' right every day,

but you want kids
to come fight again.

And he, of course, denies

- this conversation?
- Of course, you know,

of course, of course.

And then, we come
back to school,

and Brian is actin' funny.

Usually, he'd stop by
and he'd speak to us

when he walked past,

walked past the wall
that we sittin' on

in-between classes.

But after this happened,

he takes a different route.

He don't come through
there no more.

And this before anybody
even thinkin' it's him.

He just took it upon hisself

to go a different
route to his classes.

Why, after this happened,

do you start takin' different
routes around the school?

That was like, you know,
that's like a no-brainer.

You're movin' different.

- Why?
- When all this happened,

Kendrick didn't have no
beef with nobody else.

Kendrick wasn't into
it with nobody else.

They were the only ones.

And then, we come to find out,

they were the only ones

didn't get interviewed,

didn't wanna get questioned.

They were the only ones
at the time lawyered up.

When it was clear to us

that if we couldn't
make the case,

as far as what
happened to Kendrick,

'cause of all this
missin' evidence,

missin' body parts,
all that, witnesses,

I mean, just all of
that, when we realized

it was gonna be difficult
to make the case,

we started concentrating on

obstruction.

So, we started lookin' at

the Bells' father,

who's an FBI agent,

for some of the things that

he was doin'.

Every time we would
talk to someone,

a witness,

they would tell us how.

Bell father met with them.

And we were like,

"You can't interfere with a
grand jury investigation."

You have to leave it
alone, but for somehow,

he kept meetin'
with the witnesses

who we were tryin' to talk to.

And we finally talked
to the witness,

we find out that
they done talked to,

to the Bell, the Bell father.

They said they were not
threatened directly.

They just felt that way.

They were always,
they felt as though...

Some said they always felt as
though they were being followed.

I remember interviewing
a young lady

who told us how Rick
Bell would visit

her job,

or she would see him outside

of her job,

and that used to
make her nervous.

And I felt as though

we were very close

to gettin' enough information,

whereas we can say he
committed obstruction,

an FBI agent committed
obstruction of justice.

The mornin' we did the raids,

plenty of agencies
were involved,

and we went to a lot
of different locations.

An FBI agent's home
was raided last month

in connection with
the investigation

into the death of a
Valdosta teenager.

Karen Bell says her
husband, Rick Bell,

is an agent in good
standing with the FBI,

an arm of the US
Justice Department,

but that the swarm of
heavily-armed men and a woman,

most in full tactical gear,
that rushed toward her house

about 5:16 AM, July 21st

came from an arm of the
US Justice Department too,

- the US Marshall Service.
- This is

where they knocked
the morning of

around 5:00 AM.

I was layin' in bed,

I got a bang on my door.

- Tactical gear?
- Yes, sir, to the nth degree.

They were just like, "It's
about the Kendrick Johnson case,

the ongoing Kendrick
Johnson investigation."

In order for a judge

to sign

search warrants,

meaning several, for
several locations,

therefore, evidence

was submitted that he believed
we were onto somethin'.

So these search warrants,
several, were signed.

Deputy US Marshal
serving search warrants

in connection with
the mysterious death

of Kendrick Johnson

at Lowndes High School in 2013.

- I was just really shocked.
- I broke down and cried.

I really had no reason in my
head why they would be here.

It just keeps on gettin' worse.

Documents provided by
the Bells' legal team

indicate property seized with
the search warrant included

smart phones, thumb
drives, laptops,

discs, and the like.

Deals with obstructing
investigations,

destroying evidence,
witness tampering.

I'm gonna ask my photographer to

push in tight on your face.

Okay.

Our viewers can read
your expression.

Did you have anything to do

with the death of
Kendrick Johnson?

No.

He was like one of
my good friends.

Even at the time of his death?

- Even at the time of his death.
- And I want everybody to

know the truth, and, I mean,

they can ridicule
me, and they can,

they can say whatever they want,

but in the end, the
truth will prevail,

and everybody will find
that me and my brother

have been innocent, and
always will be innocent.

But both Bells maintain the
have rock-solid alibies.

Did you see Kendrick Johnson?

No, sir, not at any
point during that day.

Where were you?

I was in class.

I was in class first block,
second block, third block,

and fourth block.

Close to the gym?

- No.
- Did you see Kendrick that day?

No.

I did not.

Have you prayed
for the Johnsons?

Yes, sir, I have.

I hope that they found justice,

and I hope they do find out
the truth about their son.

And now, WJCL News,

working for you.

New developments in the Kendrick
Johnson death investigation.

We have uncovered an
email whose sender claims

to know who killed Johnson.

And tonight, I have been
lookin' through these 22 pages

that we requested

that could possibly
answer the question,

what happened to
Kendrick Johnson?

Some of the kids
that know scared,

but they should never be scared.

This week, WJCL learned US
Attorney, Michael Moore,

subpoenaed more than 120
students and parents at Valdosta

to testify in front
of a grand jury.

What happened to
Kendrick last January

is a question the
family has been asking

for more than a year now,

and this week, that
question may have an answer.

WJCL learned deputies
in Lowndes county

received an anonymous email.

Because those mentioned
in the email are minors,

their names have been
changed to Jane and Joe.

Here's what the email says,

My best friend was at a party
Saturday night with Jane,

and she was upset
about something

that Joe had said to her.

She said that about a
little over a year ago,

she had sexual intercourse
with Kendrick Johnson

while she was dating Joe.

Joe found out and threatened KJ.

KJ told Joe to meet him in
the old gym after third block

and he would have
his knife ready.

Joe and Joe's friend met KJ

and killed him.

Joe has also been heard
admitting to killing KJ

more than once over the phone.

His brother also got drunk
at a party on the 4th of July

and told many people
that Joe killed KJ,

and that Joe's brother was
tired of keeping it a secret.

And my sources told me one
of the boys in the email

is the son of an FBI agent.

His father originally told him
not to talk to investigators,

but is now forced to talk
because of the subpoena.

There's been several
people that has come forth

with the truth.

But then, you got
them goin' to jail,

bein' locked up, bein' silenced

if you say anything,
bein' threatened.

A supposed lead in the
Kendrick Johnson investigation

has fizzled.

We identified the source
of the email yesterday.

We went and interviewed
that person last night,

and what we found was

they admitted they
had sent the email,

but they did it out of a
genuine interest in the case.

That this is information
they had heard,

nothing first-hand,

all rumors and speculation.

And the other little guy,
he was tellin' people about

what happened to Kendrick,

and they found out,
and they got him

and then kept him
for so many months.

Nobody could get him out.

And then when he got out,

he recanted his whole story,

he said he wasn't
tellin' the truth.

When it comes to
justice in this county,

it's more about who you know.

In this case,

you have Lowndes
County High School,

the superintendent's office,

the GBI, the FBI, and the DOJ.

The cover-up started with

one of their own.

GBI agents

and his children.

When they found out it was him,
the cover-up started there,

and then it trickled on down
to the medical examiner,

then on over to
the funeral home.

All that just, it was just,

all this just goin' on
and on, and I'm like,

"But y'all will go
through all this

just to cover

for these children?"

I think lots of people know

just coverin' it up

'cause they work together.

But Stroud was the main one
that we were talkin' to,

and so he would just
keep comin' and give us

different little lies.

And every time he would
come back with a story,

we would come back and tell
him, "You know, that's not so."

Then, in November 2015,

the US attorney in
charge of this case,

Michael Moore,
suddenly resigned.

This was astonishing because
this was the attorney

who put the Bell
boys as the target

of the investigation.

Michael Moore, I don't know,

I know he ran scared.

These people here scared
him out of his job,

I know that

because how do you come
out and say you're gonna

take this case and look
at it at every angle,

but soon as it gets hot, soon
as you're gettin' threats,

you go run and take cover?

When Michael Moore resigned,

his cases went to his
successor, except Kendrick.

For some reason,
KJ's case was moved

from Georgia to Ohio.

Goin' to Ohio with this case
was mind-boggling to me.

There had to have been
discussions in Washington

as to how you're gonna
have a change in venue

from one state to another state?

You know, I think that
your prosecutors are really

the gatekeeper for
the court system

and for the justice system.

And if you're not
willin' to keep the gate,

then that means nothing.

How the US attorney for the
middle district of Georgia

all of a sudden just
abruptly quit his position

and joined a law
firm in Atlanta?

At Pope McGlamry,

we represent people
who find and report

the waste, fraud, and
abuse of taxpayer money.

We handle these cases,
sometimes called whistleblower

or false claims cases

for all kinds of individuals.

- I mean, why?
- Why?

- Yeah, why, the question is why?
- But why?

You have to ask the question,
why all of these whys?

We got to the point
where we really thought

either we were gonna
make an arrest of him,

of he may have been
getting indicted.

But for us to get a notification

that we were no longer
goin' back to Georgia,

I was like,

"Huh?"

That's impossible.

"No, you're not goin' back,
you have work to do in D.C."

I'm like, "What work?"

A very disappointing day for
the parents of Kendrick Johnson,

three and a half years after
the 17 year old was found dead

in his high school gym.

Kendrick Johnson's parents
say they're not giving up

on either civil or criminal
charges in his 2013 death.

They say federal
prosecutors told them

there was not enough evidence
to pursue a criminal case,

but they still believe he
was murdered by schoolmates.

And Monday, the Johnsons
said federal prosecutors

didn't entirely rule
out that possibility.

They simply concluded there was
not enough evidence to prove it.

And they all but
came out and said

they know he was murdered,

but nothin' to be done about it.

The jury has just come back
and has returned a verdict of

not guilty,

thus the defendants,
Milam and Bryant,

are free men in this community

of Sumner, Mississippi.

How do you folks feel
now that it's all over?

Roy, how 'bout you?

I'm just glad it's over with.

- J.W.?
- I am too.

- And Mrs. Bryant, uh...
- Yes, sir.

We, law enforcement,

justice department,

we let them down.

We let them down, man.

And that's just not...
We're not supposed to,

we're not supposed
to let families down.

We sat in a room,
it's probably about

seven or eight of them.

It was all DOJ representatives?

Yeah, so they basically said,

they said they didn't
have enough evidence

to prove a reasonable doubt.

They didn't say they
didn't have no evidence.

They said they didn't
have enough to prove it.

You know what they said?

The shoe was planted there.

- So, what's that tell you?
- The DOJ said that?

They said right
there in the meeting

that the shoe was planted there.

"Mr. Johnson, you're right,
the shoe was planted there."

You would sit in the
room with us and tell us

you know that somebody planted
that shoe under Kendrick's head,

but, yet, y'all still
can't call this a murder?

She said, "We know, Mr. Johnson,

we know something happened,

but we just don't
know who did it."

She said, "Dr. Anderson's report

is the most accurate report."

I just felt like we
still wasn't gonna stop.

Regardless of them
droppin' it, whatever,

we still gotta keep goin'.

They can drop it, but
we're not gonna drop it.

This town feels like they
really run the world.

Seven judges recused
themselves, how?

Seven.

How? When this is your job,

I don't care 'cause
that's your friend.

If it wasn't an
FBI agent's kids,

would seven judges

- have recused themselves?
- Right.

Would Michael Moore have
gave up his position?

To fully understand

the FBI's actions towards KJ,

we first need to go back to
the roots of the organization.

A man named J. Edgar Hoover

first created the FBI.

The FBI will continue
to be objective

in its investigations

and will stay within the bounds
of its authorized jurisdiction.

He ran it with
unparalleled control

for nearly 50 years.

He served through
eight presidents.

He collected
counter intelligence

on every presidential candidate

before they were elected

so he could control them
while they were in office.

He was literally the most
famous man in Washington,

and one of the most powerful men
in the world for half a century.

Once you realize this,

it's impossible to
ignore the impacts

of his tyrannical
work still lingering

throughout our system today.

During his reign,
Hoover would say

he was protecting
America from Communists

and domestic hate groups.

But a closer look at his actions

reveals a very different story.

What Hoover actually did

was create a clandestine
domestic terrorism unit

named Cointelpro

and ran it with no
Congressional oversight

or even knowledge
that it existed.

It was designed specifically
to destruct and destroy.

Black America's Civil
Rights Movement.

It was not until 1971

that the nation heard

the name of this program.

It took eight brave activists

to break into the FBI building

and steal documents proving

their illegal operations.

In the stolen documents
released to the press,

was a detailed program

of hate, intimidation,

and harassment.

Cointelpro was so far-reaching

that there were 50,000 pages

finally released about
Hoover's dirty work

and a Congressional hearing
on the matter in 1975.

What came out were
horror stories

of the FBI's racism
and bullying tactics.

I've been told for years

by, among others,

some of my own family

that this is exactly
what the bureau was doing

all the time.

And in my great wisdom,

and high office,

I assured them they were

on pot,

that this just wasn't true.

What you've described is a
series of illegal actions

intended squarely to deny
first amendment rights

to some Americans.

That's what my children
have told me is going on.

Documents also revealed

a bonus payment of $175

to an undercover FBI agent

inside the KKK for
beating up a Black man.

Hoover would later
tell the agent,

"You're one of the
greatest Americans

this country has ever had."

Another shocking page

was an anonymous letter
to Martin Luther King,

which the bureau
wrote and sent to him

one month before he received
the Nobel Peace Prize.

The letter berated King,

and in the last
paragraph suggested

he commit suicide.

The bureau went
so far as to mail

anonymous letters to
Dr. King and his wife

and finishes with this

suggestion,

"King, there is only one
thing left for you to do,

you know what it is.

You have just 34 days
in which to do it.

You are done."

If I can interrupt you.

That was taken by Dr. King

to mean a suggestion
for suicide,

- was it not?
- That's our understanding,

senator.

Decades after Hoover's death,

the FBI's actions show
they haven't changed.

The assault on Black
America's political movements

continues to this day.

We saw it first-hand when many
of the peaceful protestors

in Ferguson were
investigated, tracked,

and labeled by the FBI as.

Black identity extremists.

Black identity extremists

now considered a domestic
terror threat by the FBI.

The bureau releasing an
explosive new report.

And has the FBI and the American
public denounced Hoover?

Far from it?

Even today, you can go and
visit the FBI building in D.C.,

which still carries
his name proudly.

And has the FBI been fighting
real terrorist hate groups too?

Or, have they just been focused
on the civil rights activists?

Well, a 2018 study show that

US hate groups

have reached an all-time high.

So, who is the FBI against

and who are they for?

For us to

not make an arrest,

for me to find out later

the case was dismissed,

just my personal feelin',

I felt as though somethin'
had to have occurred,

and I really thought
that they must have

struck a deal with Rick Bell.

He lost his job

because the DOJ

had evidence of corruption.

I said, "They
actually told me that"

on the phone, we were
on a phone conference.

They said, "Mr. Johnson,
we're gonna tell you.

They are not gonna lock him up,
and they are not gonna fire him,

but they're gonna
make him resign."

They said, "We got evidence

of corruption of Rick Bell.

And what we're gonna do,

we're gonna turn it
over to the FBI."

And shortly after
that, he resigned.

I felt as though
if we would have

continued our investigation,

not only would we have made

an arrest with Bell
for obstruction,

I really believe we would
have got to the bottom

of what happened to Kendrick

if Bell would have been charged
with obstruction of justice.

I'm lookin' at
Kendrick's father.

I'm lookin' at myself.

And I'm sayin' to myself, as
I look at Kendrick's father,

is that

I'd probably be in
jail for murder.

Well, the sounds of
those screeching chains

echoed through the Sunset
Cemetery in Valdosta today

as Kendrick Johnson's grave

was exhumed for the second time.

The Johnson family is
hoping a third autopsy

will help them figure
out what happened

- to their son.
- We're looking at the pictures.

There was an area on the
right side of the chest

that looked like hemorrhage,

so we did a third autopsy.

It turns out, we used the
same techniques we did before.

It did show that there had
been blunt force trauma

to the right side of the chest.

So we had two areas
of trauma for sure.

So I'm fairly confident that

we pretty much
have the mechanism

of how this kid died.

So, when you went and you
presented your evidence,

what happened?

We contacted the medical
examiner in Georgia,

and the state attorney,

and I told them that we had the,

we had the photos, we had
the microscopic slides,

and so forth, and the
response we got was,

"We're not interested
in looking at them."

Nobody has basically requested
to look at the slides

except the US Attorney's office.

Clearly, there's
something on these slides

that Dr. Anderson made

the state of Georgia
doesn't want you to see.

So for the first time ever,

here they are.

You can see here,
this is all dried out,

embalmed tissue.

Now, when we opened this area,
we see this distinct area,

which I'm gonna use
the cursor to show,

of hemorrhage.

That red coloration,

distinctly different
than the other area.

Now this is the area
under the microscope,

and we can see all these red

areas here.

Now the question then becomes,

"Well, are these really
red blood cells?"

So that's when we do the
immunohistochemistry,

and that's a picture of the
immunostaining, we call it.

And the areas in brown,

that's the antibody picking up

the antigen, which
is the hemoglobin.

So that's basically how we
prove that this is actually

hemorrhaged not artifact,

and that made our
diagnosis pretty firm

that this was an area of blunt
force trauma to the neck.

I sent it to two other
pathologists to look at myself

before we even came
up with our decision.

And everyone agreed?

Yeah.

I mean, you just can't
make a murder an accident

when it's a murder.

How can you?

Whatever's left of
him's tellin' a story

that they're still
tryin' to cover.

Kendrick is still
speakin' from the grave.

So let me get this straight,

a 5 foot 10 kid decided
to go head first

into a six-foot mat,

then realized after he was stuck

that he was gonna
die down there,

and then he died
down there, stuck,

somehow silently, with
a gym full of kids

playing basketball and
changing classes around him.

Then his shoes
magically appeared

on the top of his body

inside the mat,
shoved into the hole.

His legs became
twisted in the mat.

And all of this happened in
the middle of the school day

in a gym full of kids.

Then, somehow, the video tape

from only those
moments is missing.

Then, Kendrick's
organs go missing.

Seven judges recuse themselves.

The US attorney working
on the case resigns,

and then your case
moves to Ohio.

Then, it's officially closed
by the justice department,

who tells you in a meeting

the crime scene has
planted objects,

your autopsy report is correct,

your child was murdered,

and there's nothing
else we can do about it.

One thing we kept hearing
over and over again

was about this
missing FBI report

regarding the security
tape hard drive

and the blacked out footage.

So, we looked into
finding that report

to see if we could locate it,

and we did.

However, the report
was heavily redacted.

But then, we were able to find
the un-redacted FBI report,

and what we discovered
blew us away.

You see, in the redacted report,

you can barely see any
of the video frames.

Most of the frames
are blacked out,

and the ones with KJ
are barely recognizable.

In the un-redacted report,

we were able to see all the
video frames in full color.

The report follows KJ,
Brian, and Brandon's movement

throughout the school
for the entire day

and records where they were.

Not only is this
further video evidence

that the Bell boys
were on campus

when KJ went missing,

we found something that the FBI
clearly didn't want us to see.

Let us put them side by side

so you can see what we found.

Here they are.

Can you see something
a little odd?

Look closely.

There appears to be
a frame on both pages

that matches.

How could this be?

What tipped us off is
KJ's yellow folder.

We were going through Brian's
movements, and all of a sudden,

KJ's folder appeared on screen.

That's right, there's
a frame on KJ's side

and Brian's side

that is identical.

The boys are standing seemingly
right next to each other

in the hallway.

Did you see Kendrick that day?

No.

I did not.

Seeing the alleged killer of KJ

standing next to
him in the hallway

the day he died in school

has sent chills down our spines.

How did no one see this frame?

How did the FBI let this go?

Why did it take six years
and an independent filmmaker

to find this?

These are all questions
that may never go answered.

But what we do know for sure

is that we have more facts
now than we ever had,

and this case needs
to be re-opened

and re-examined

with a fine-tooth comb.

After finding this
game-changing evidence,

our crew flew to Georgia
to show Kendrick's parents

as soon as possible.

Had you seen that frame?

Mm-mm.

Can you believe that?

Mm-mm.

- Hm.
- They are next to each other.

That's the morning of.

And that's in their own report.

And we have their paperwork.

And they saw that.

All the adults

authorities and
school personnel,

show you to the extent that

how much they covered up.

How are you feeling right now?

It's just crazy,
just to let you know

we were right all along.

What do you think's gonna happen
when we release this photograph?

They gonna try to come
out with some more lies.

What do you think they're
gonna say about it?

Somebody photo-cropped it.

In their own report?

In their own report.

All along, we know
it was bullshit.

We know it was bullshit.

They pushed a real large

social media
campaign against us,

about Kendrick and Brian
didn't never see each other

none that day.

And it goes to show
you, we was right,

they was lyin' the
whole damn while.

Go grab myself a tissue.

Yeah, that's what they done.

After KJ's mom told our crew

she thought they were gonna say

that we faked this photo,

we decided to go back
into the FBI's report

to see if there
was anything else

we can show to prove it.

Lo and behold!

The page after the
photo was a grid

that the FBI wrote
describing each picture.

In their own words,

they wrote,

"KJ observed in covered walkway

moving towards camera.

Bell observed in same
location at this time."

So there you have it.

The FBI not only
included the photo

of Brian and Kendrick
in their report,

they included a spreadsheet
explaining the photos

that back up exactly
what we are seeing,

KJ and Brian standing
next to each other

the morning this all happened.

After showing our new evidence
to the Johnson family,

we flew to D.C. to get a
third-party perspective

on this FBI report from Mitch.

KJ and Brian

standing next to each other

the morning this all happened.

Hold up.

I'm stuck.

I'm... No, really,
I'm stuck because

if the footage was there,

and if the footage was there,

I don't recall
seeing this footage.

And I clearly remember

goin' to the FBI
office in Atlanta

when I first got
involved in the case.

I don't, I don't,

I've never seen this.

Ugh, hold, hold, wait.

I don't ever recall seein'

KJ standin' near Brian Bell

with a yellow folder

in his hand.

And just based on the footage,

obviously, that's here,
they're near each other.

It may be ten feet or closer.

I can see the public not
seein' certain things.

I can see the family not
seein' certain things.

But, as an investigator,

it bothers me

because it's somethin'
that I should have seen.

And why wasn't I given the
opportunity to see this?

I recall being told

that Brian Bell didn't
see KJ that day.

And it's obvious just by
lookin' at this footage,

that came from
wherever it came from,

that they had to have
seen each other that day.

And...

Oh, wow, it...

Hm.

Oh, man, I mean...

Y'all got to excuse me, I'm
a little messed up right now.

To know that I'm
seein' something now

that I could not have
seen back in 2015,

when I was involved
in the investigation,

sort of kinda makes
me think that...

I wonder about some other things

I did not see,

or some other things that

maybe I wasn't supposed to see.

And when you're
following the evidence,

and you're steered off
in another direction,

and you miss evidence,

then that's most
definitely is gonna

interfere with investigations.

If I'm one of the
investigators on the case,

I should have seen
this particular clip,

and it shouldn't be because
what a filmmaker found

that I saw this.

How was this filmmaker able to
see this particular evidence,

and I'm part of
the investigation

and I never saw it before?

And I think that's
what's troublesome to me,

to see something new.

I'm investigatin' the
case, but I don't see it,

but someone, a filmmaker...
I mean no disrespect...

But the filmmaker, he
finds a piece of evidence

that I couldn't find.

It's troublesome to me,

and that's, and that's,
and that's real.

Yeah, that's it, there
ain't nothin' else

I can say about that.

What do you think
really happened?

I think,

honestly,

I think it was a
fight in the gym.

I wouldn't say Brian by hisself.

I don't think he can
beat him one on one.

You know what I'm sayin'?

I don't think he went
right in the mat.

I think the mat was
some shit that was done

after school hours, honestly.

I think they jumped him.

They jumped him, and
they took it too far.

When you look at
the investigation,

and you flip the script,
you ask yourself if

one of the Bell boys

had died

and Kendrick was the suspect,

would the body parts be missing?

Would the case have
been ruled an accident?

Would evidence
have been missing?

Would the video... would
timeline on the video tape

minutes, or whatever, would
that have been missing?

Would an arrest
not have been made?

They'd have found him that night

if he'd have been a
white boy missin',

and then they would have
done somethin' about it.

Everybody in the United States

should have the protection of
their rights under the law,

and this includes
police officers.

There are situations where,

because of certain
circumstances,

police officers who
are doing their duty,

become the victims
of wrongful lawsuits

or wrongful prosecutions.

Ed Meese, the US
attorney general

during Regan's presidency,

is one of the leaders of a group
who works behind the scenes,

paying legal costs,

and providing other
forms of assistance

to law enforcement officials

accused of heinous crimes.

Even after Rick
Bell lost his job,

they were helping
him and his family

in their legal
battles concerning KJ.

What this means is
that while KJ's body

is busy being exhumed again,

Brian Bell is able to
play division I football.

But this inequality suffered
by KJ and his family

is nothing new to
Black Americans.

It's only now with
cell phone cameras

and police body cams

that we are actually able to
see how this inequity plays out.

Hands on the car, I'm gonna
shoot you in your... head.

You understand me?

Don't you... move, I'm a
shoot you in your... head,

you hear me?

Don't you... move!

When Black men are choked
for selling cigarettes,

or walking in the street,

white mass murderers

are gingerly arrested

and fed hamburgers
by the police.

If KJ had been white,

we wouldn't have had
to make this film.

Imagine it had been Brian Bell

wrapped up in a gym mat.

Would his organs
have been replaced

by newspaper in his body?

Would security footage
have gone missing?

Everyone in Valdosta knows

there's much more to this story

than what is in that
official report,

but no one seems to
care because to them,

kids like Kendrick

don't matter.

Their lives and
stories don't matter.

And certainly, their
deaths don't matter

except they do matter.

- Ugh.
- What do you want?

I can't breathe!

Please, the knee in my neck.

I can't breathe, shit.

Well, get up, get
in the car, man.

- I will!
- Get up, get in the car!

- I can't move!
- I've been watching

- the whole thing, man.
- Ah!

- Get up and get in the car!
- Mama!

In the summer of 2020,

a man named George Floyd

died on camera screaming,

"I can't breathe"

while a police officer
kept his knee on his neck

for nine straight minutes,

an eerie throwback

to Eric Garner's last moments.

This video of George
went super viral.

Around the same time, a
woman named Breonna Taylor

was killed in her home

by police during a botched raid
in the middle of the night.

A public already angry
about the coronavirus

responded en masse to
support these victims.

A wave of protests filled
the streets worldwide

to support George and
Breonna's justice.

Waves of peaceful
protestors marched on

bigger than ever before.

No more silence!

- No justice!
- No peace!

From Washington's newly named
Black Lives Matter Plaza...

Justice for George Floyd!

To San Francisco's
Golden Gate Bridge,

to Philadelphia...

This renewed interest

into heinous cover-ups

of Black death in this country,

led to the public once again

pushing KJ's name out
into the conversation.

Jacquelyn Johnson says
justice was never served

in the death of
her son, Kendrick.

Now, with the help
of a petitions

and big-name celebrities,
she has hope.

People just don't
understand how hard it is to

lose a child, but to
lose one to murder,

senseless murder.

Everyone started
posting about KJ,

and his story became
headline news again

in the wake of this
new movement happening.

A petition starting
the year before

in support of KJ's justice

began to go viral.

During the summer of 2020,

over 1.7 million people
signed KJ's petition.

But because we were
a Black people,

a Black family,

and they thought we was
this Black poor family

that wasn't gonna do nothin',
they done already said,

"Yeah, we gonna get
'em a couple of dollars

and they just gonna go away."

Your dollars don't mean
nothin' compared to that body.

That was mine, that's mine.

Baby boy, we're doin' it for ya.

We ain't lettin'
nothin' stop us!

I had to come check on ya.

I ain't been out
here in a while,

since your birthday.

We gonna keep raisin' Hell

'till we get justice
for ya, baby.

He used to be the happiest child

about goin' to
Lowndes High School.

That child loved
goin' to school.

I could call his name one
time, he would get up,

even though he wasn't
a morning person.

We was always close,
everybody really.

But me and him was the closest
'cause we was the youngest,

and we always had to be home.

Kendrick would just go in
there and dive on her back

and just make her so mad,

and she'd get up and chase
him through the house,

and just... He was just
the joy of our life.

You know, when I tell you
we was a crazy family,

we used to wrestle
through the house,

we used to have water fights.

Laughing, cuttin' jokes,

that's all we really did.

It was never a dull moment
at all with Kendrick.

Respectful, loved his
family, loved his daddy.

Loved his daddy, oh,
my God, them two.

I said, "Boy, wake me up
at such and such time."

And he'll wake me up.

That time come, he wake me up.

I miss it, I miss
that little boy.

For people that don't understand

what it's like to
lose a sibling,

what do you say to them?

Oh, tell your sibling that
you love 'em every day,

every single day.

It don't matter if y'all mad,

y'all disagreein'.

Make sure you tell
your whole family

that you love 'em

'cause anything can happen.

You can wake up the next day

and they gone.

You can be livin' with
'em your whole life,

and the next day,

you can't even tell
'em that you love 'em.

You can't even tell
'em that you miss 'em.

To be without Kendrick
on Christmas Day

and his birthdays.

I see people every day

take their family

for granted,

and I be tryin' to tell 'em

you can't do that.

'Cause you end up
in my situation,

you ain't gonna know
how to walk in my shoes.

You ain't gonna be able to be as
strong as me and my people is.

Everybody ain't built to
handle what we goin' through.

My husband said that one
day he was in the bed

after Kendrick died,

and he could literally feel

Kendrick gettin' in the bed
behind him and layin' down

with him because that's
the stuff they use to

sit in the bed and
watch football together.

I never thought that I'd
have to live without my,

neither one of my brothers, so

it bein' my brother,

the one that I'm

the closest to,

that's very devastating.

Always gotta

love your people.

Can't never let nothing
simple tear y'all apart.

Son, I love you,

and I know you know that.

And you left us because you knew

that you had two
parents that was gonna

always fight for you,

and you knew we
wasn't goin' nowhere

until we get it right,

'till you make sure
somebody's held accountable.

Well, brother,

I just wanna let you know

that I love you whole lot.

That'll never change.

I miss you.

Kendrick, we miss you,

and we know that justice
is gonna be done,

and we know that your spirit

is stirred up and
you're not restin'.

I give my life before
I let this case go.

You know, me and you was
like two peas in a pod.

Nothin' can break us apart.

I hear your voice,

and I thank you
for the many nights

that I would of had
overslept in my truck.

Even today,

when I used to have you
sittin' in the front seat,

while I was takin' a nap
and you used to wake me up,

you used to always be
pokin' on me, "Dad, Dad,

it's time to go,
it's time to go."

I can still hear
that same voice.

Thank you.

Even through goin'
through all of this,

God is just still so good.

He gives us strength, He
gives power to endure,

knowin' the truth gonna
come for you, Kendrick.

It's comin'.

It is comin'!

Until we meet again,

I always love you, son.

And we okay down here.

You ain't gotta worry about us.

We strong

'cause we got the most

beautiful angel
watchin' over us.

I love ya.

That'll never change.

Your name's gonna be
known all over this world.

We love you, and you rest.

We'll see you one day.