US4 min(s) read
Published 15:58 13 Jul 2026 GMT
Nolan Wells’ friend has spoken publicly to dispute claims surrounding a viral beach fight video, insisting the footage has been widely misinterpreted and that many of the assumptions circulating online are wrong.
The clip, which spread across social media after the 18-year-old football player disappeared, quickly became the focus of online speculation.
Many viewers claimed they could hear Wells arguing moments before his death, while others believed he was visible on the beach because one of the young men in the footage appeared to be wearing blue swim trunks similar to the pair Wells had been wearing that day.
However, Tracestin Shepherd says that's not what happened.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Shepherd claimed Wells does not appear in the video at all, adding that the voice many people have attributed to Wells actually belongs to him.
According to Shepherd, the confrontation on July 4 began after he and his girlfriend started arguing while standing waist-deep in the water off Horn Island, Mississippi.
He said another man, who wasn't part of their group, interrupted the argument, causing tensions to escalate.
"I told him he needed to mind his own business," Shepherd recalled.
The disagreement allegedly turned physical, prompting Shepherd's uncle to order him back onto the family's boat so they could leave the area.
Despite that, Shepherd admitted he wanted to continue the fight while friends remained on the beach.
"At that point, another adult on a nearby boat started filming" the footage that would later go viral after Wells disappeared.
Addressing the clip directly, Shepherd said: "In that video, you hear somebody yelling – that is me."
He added: "It's me yelling – my exact wording is, 'Get me off this f****** boat.' I wanted to fight, and I'd felt like I hadn't had my fair share."
His account was reportedly supported by his girlfriend, his uncle and a family friend who all witnessed the incident.
One unnamed family friend told Rolling Stone: "He want[ed] to get off the boat and go fight the dude who he got into it with."
The friend added: "Nobody knows what Tracestin was saying better than me because he was screaming it in my face."
As online theories continued to spread, many social media users claimed the person seen standing on the shoreline was Wells because of the blue swim trunks.
Shepherd strongly rejected that suggestion, arguing the individual identified online was too short to be his six-foot-two friend, and maintaining that Wells was actually out of frame in the water when the video was recorded.
He said he has since provided investigators with a full account of the day's events and has also spoken directly with Wells' family.
The footage has also been referenced by civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the Wells family.
After sharing the clip online, Crump said during a press conference: "This video, you can hear an argument going where Nolan is saying, 'Give me my freaking phone, what are you freaking doing?'"
However, another friend of Wells, Jayvon Williams, also disputed that interpretation while speaking to TMZ.
"That altercation, it sounds just like my other friend who got into another altercation on the boat," Williams said.
He continued: "As he was in that altercation, I was trying to calm him down, they were trying to get him out, off the island, trying to get him back to land because he was just losing it. The parents on that boat were trying to get him out."
Shepherd later confirmed he was the friend Williams was referring to, saying: "Those were not Nolan's words, they were mine."
He added: "I get that everybody wants justice for Nolan. Everybody wants to know exactly what happened. Will we ever know?"
Wells' body was discovered on July 6 in the same Horn Island area where the group had gathered to celebrate Independence Day.
The Jackson County Sheriff's Office is continuing to investigate his death, while Crump has called for an independent investigation and has commissioned a separate autopsy.
