Three of Nolan Wells' friends sued Terrell Owens for defamation over an "ARREST THEM IMMEDIATELY!!" post.

A grand jury declining to recommend charges is supposed to close the criminal question for the people it looked at. The lawsuit says that days later Owens, who has 1.2 million followers on X, posted "ARREST THEM IMMEDIATELY!!" with a link to a video theorizing that the three killed Wells. Whether that post is protected opinion or a false statement of fact is exactly what a defamation case decides. The AP said Owens did not immediately respond. A complaint is one side's account.

The Associated Press, in a report carried by NBC News and ESPN, said three friends of Nolan Wells, the Black college student who went missing from a Mississippi island during a Fourth of July celebration and was later found dead, are suing NFL Hall of Famer Terrell Owens for defamation. The friends' fathers filed the federal lawsuit on Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, on their behalf because the three are under 21 and considered minors under Mississippi law, the AP reported. Crime Talk Network is not naming them.

The lawsuit alleges Owens defamed the three by posting on X, "ARREST THEM IMMEDIATELY!!" and linking to an Instagram video that theorized they killed Wells and tampered with his phone, according to the AP. The post came days after a Mississippi grand jury declined to recommend charges in Wells' death. The AP reported Owens has 1.2 million followers on X and had previously pledged $25,000 to a reward fund for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case. "Not only is he defaming them, he's basically saying to the mob, get your pitchforks, get your torches," said Edward Paltzik, a defamation and media attorney representing the friends. Paltzik is also the lawyer for Michael Desronvil, the lone holdout juror in Lindsay Clancy's Massachusetts mistrial.

The AP reported the friends' lawyers intend to file several more defamation claims this week against content creators and have previously said they intend to sue the Rev. Al Sharpton and "The View" co-host Sunny Hostin over comments they made while discussing Wells' death. The AP said it tried to reach Owens through social media and through SMAC Entertainment, which manages him according to its website, and did not immediately receive a response. The allegations in the complaint have not been tested in court.

Wells was one of about 30 friends who rode three boats to Horn Island on July 4, the AP reported. His friends said he chose to stay behind to talk with a girl, an account his family disputes. His body was found two days later off the island's coast. The grand jury found his death "consistent with drowning," but neither the state autopsy nor an independent autopsy determined a cause of death, and Wells' family and their lawyers have pointed to unexplained bruising on the back of his head and to his airways and stomach being devoid of water, according to the AP. Images of Wells with white friends on the day he disappeared fueled online speculation that race played a role. Two of the three plaintiffs were singled out online partly because they appear in a photo with Wells on a boat, and the third is the friend who called Wells' mother and the U.S. Coast Guard to report him missing, the AP reported.

No one has been charged in Wells' death, and Owens is not accused of any crime. This is a civil case, and a lawsuit's allegations are not a finding. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, a principle that applies with even more force to people who were never charged at all.