Source: People – Nearly six months after Shanquella Robinson died while on vacation in Mexico, the United States Department of Justice announced on Wednesday they won’t file charges in the case.
The Department of Justice announced in a Wednesday release that federal authorities conducted an autopsy on Shanquella in North Carolina, and that based on the available evidence, authorities “have concluded that federal charges cannot be pursued.”
Shanquella was 25 years old when she went on a trip to Mexico with six friends in late October of last year. The day after arriving, her friend who was on the trip called her mother to say she had alcohol poisoning. Hours later, Shanquella, a Charlotte, N.C. native, was dead.
Weeks after she died, a violent and disturbing video began circulating online showing Shanquella being beaten in what appeared to be the luxury villa she was vacationing at when she died.
Her family was told she died from alcohol poisoning, but according to an autopsy conducted in Mexico, which was made public by the Robinson family attorneys, Shanquella died of “atlas and medullary dislocation” — a broken neck and spine — and her manner of death was violent.
The Department of Justice’s press release states a separate autopsy was conducted in the U.S., but it does not go into detail about what the results were.
“Based on the results of the autopsy and after a careful deliberation and review of the investigative materials by both U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, federal prosecutors informed Ms. Robinson’s family today that the available evidence does not support a federal prosecution,” the release states.
Although it is a crime under the U.S. Constitution to murder a U.S. citizen in a foreign country, the FBI has not called Shanquella’s death a murder. However, Mexican authorities have called her death a femicide, a gender-based murder and hate crime, according to the Robinson family attorneys, and Mexican law enforcement issued an arrest warrant for one of Shanquella’s travel companions. Authorities in the U.S. have never named that person.
The statement ends by stating that if new information about the case arrises, the government is prepared to review it.
“We’re disappointed but we’re not deterred,” the Robinson family attorney Sue-Ann Robinson (no relation) said during a press conference, livestreamed by WSOC, on Wednesday. “It’s not something that’s unexpected. Black and Brown people have always had to carve their own path to justice and we’ve been doing that since the beginning.”
Sue-Ann then compared Shanquella’s mother to Ahmaud Arbery’s mother Wanda Cooper-Jones, who fought for justice for her son after he was murdered.
“[She’s] having to bury a child, grieve for a child, and then fight for justice for [her] child at the same time,” Sue-Ann said.
Sue-Ann said according to the Department of Justice, the autopsy done in the U.S. did not show a spinal injury like the autopsy conducted in Mexico showed. She also said the cause of death from the U.S. autopsy is undetermined.
“Her attack was captured on video and now we are being told there won’t be an arrest,” she continued. “It reminded me of George Floyd. When we were told we weren’t seeing what we were seeing.”
Sue-Ann also said that Shanquella’s case was not taken seriously since the beginning, which has caused discrepancies in the investigation.
“Today we ended up with way more questions than answers,” Sue-Ann added. “We stand with this family and we’re going to stand with this family until the very end.”
Sue-Ann previously told PEOPLE, “Shanquella was an educated, vibrant, ambitious entrepreneur that really had a caring heart, and she went on a vacation and was returned home in a box. No one should have to spend their last moments the way that she did.”
