After watching the federal government’s swift reaction to Mexican cartel members kidnapping and killing Black Americans, the family of Shanquella Robinson, the Black woman found dead during her vacation in Mexico, is incensed about what they feel is a lackluster investigation.
Lawyers for the family, Sue-Ann Robinson (of no relation to the family) and Ben Crump, are blasting the FBI for a delayed response. Attorney Robinson trekked to Baja California– the Mexican state where Robinson was killed– looking for answers. The state’s attorney general’s office relayed that this is a “high priority” case for them, noting that the FBI is the entity which “has been stagnant.”
As Crump said, “There seems to be no activity on behalf of Shanquella.” Attorney Robinson added, “the current case demonstrates that the U.S. authorities and the federal police agencies are not doing all that they could do in Shanquella’s case.”
It has been five months since Robinson’s death, and there have been no arrests. Attorney Robinson noted that “[t]he FBI can issue the same reward they just did [in the recent kidnapping case] if they’re seeking information…They can say, ‘Hey, we’re offering a $50,000 reward for anybody who has information on this case.’”
This was a vacation turned deadly for Robinson– she went to Mexico with six others and never made it back home to America. Her traveling companions initially blamed alcohol poisoning as the cause of death, but suspicions arose after the death certificate named “trauma to the neck and spine as the cause.” After a North Carolina blogger released a video of 25-year-old Robinson being brutally beaten by another woman, calls for justice were ignited across social media.
Since being retained, Crump and Robinson have also called upon President Joe Biden and the Department of State for diplomatic intervention in the matter.
Prosecutors have acknowledged that this incident was a “direct attack” and have previously stated that an arrest warrant was issued for one of the six companions. In an extremely rare move, Mexican authorities even “requested that the American government extradite” that same citizen in question, who has yet to be publicly named, toward the end of last year.
But as Insider reports, “If that step is taken…the case turns from a mere criminal one into a diplomatic one involving multiple branches of the US government, federal court proceedings, and questions about the American suspect’s rights.”