When bad things happen to Black people under suspicious circumstances, the benefit of the doubt is hard to come by. BOSSIP has reported numerous stories over the years where a Black person was killed or seriously injured and little to no effort was made to investigate the explanations of those who may be involved.
According to a KSLA, Christopher “Chris” Gilbert was with a group of friends hanging out at Lake D’Arbonne in the town of Farmerville near Shreveport, Louisiana. At some point, Gilbert was submerged under water for over 10 minutes. His mother, Yolanda George, says she received a harrowing phone call.
“A friend of his called and she was hysterical crying. She told me that Chris has fell into the lake and he had been underwater for 10 minutes or so,” George said.
George says that the time her son spent underwater did significant damage to his entire body.
“The doctor called us in and told me that at that time, he was brain dead and the rest of his organs were starting to fail. That we had 72 hours on the ECMO machine. It’s sort of like dialysis for the lungs and they had to put him on a ventilator.”
Thankfully, a WBNG report states that after two weeks, Gilbert has finally been taken off life support and is making a miraculous recovery. He will likely be released from the hospital soon. Additionally, the friends initially told police that the 26-year-old fell into the water. Following an investigation, detectives found out that he was pushed into the water by a female in the friend group. At this point, no arrests have been made and the family along with local activists are demanding justice.
We will follow this story and update it as we receive new information.