Supporters of a Houston teen who claimed he was kidnapped and assaulted by a group of white supremacists last month are unfortunately eating their words after a police investigation revealed the boy’s entire story was a lie.
Zavion Parker, 13, made national headlines when he alleged he was kidnapped by a man and four older-looking teens after getting off the school bus in May. Parker said he was then robbed and beaten for his shoes before being taken to vacant cabin where the men held him at gunpoint until he was able to escape.
The boy’s mother, Michelle Lee, told ABC13 she believed her son was targeted because of his race. Her son had told her that one of the men even had a racial tattoo buzzed on his right forearm.
“The reason why they got him was because they said he was black. ‘You deserve to die.’ Exactly his words,” Lee told the station last month. “Saying the dad had, like, a white muscle shirt on, and you could see it (the tattoo), was right here big as day. ‘I hate black people.'”
After some digging, however, the Houston Police Department said it found no evidence to support Parker’s claims and that none of the events described ever occurred. As for the abandoned shack the teen claimed he was taken to, police said the property and its owners weren’t involved in any crime.
“For the community at large, there is absolutely no reason to believe there’s a group white supremacists abducting children in the area,” HPD said in a series of tweets giving updates on the case.
We want to update the community on a case that has received widespread attention in the news media and on social media. On May 14, a 13-year-old African American boy reported that he had been abducted in northeast Houston by white supremacists. 1/5 #hounews
— Houston Police (@houstonpolice) June 4, 2018
HPD has thoroughly investigated this case and evidence obtained shows the incident, as described, did not occur. We met with the family and community leaders and showed them why we believe this to be the case. 2/5
— Houston Police (@houstonpolice) June 4, 2018
For the community at large, there is absolutely no reason to believe there is a
group of white supremacists abducting children in the area. 3/5— Houston Police (@houstonpolice) June 4, 2018
The owners of the property in question have no involvement in this case. We have identified the owner of the red pickup truck circulated on social media as being the possible suspect vehicle. We have determined the owner also has no involvement in this case. 4/5
— Houston Police (@houstonpolice) June 4, 2018
There are no charges in this incident, nor are any expected at this time.We thank everyone for their continuing interest in this case and always encourage the public to call the police whenever they believe a crime may have been committed. 5/5
— Houston Police (@houstonpolice) June 4, 2018
There were plenty of critics who questioned Parker’s story when it first made the news, but there were also those who defended the teen, including the woman to called the cops when she spotted him running down the street shoeless with tears in his clothes.
“Zavion told me out of his own mouth that it was an older white guy — he had a red, white and blue tattoo on his neck,” witness Camecia Carmouch told ABC 13 reporter Erica Simon. “He couldn’t explain verbatim that it was a Confederate flag. He said the man was basically telling him while he was on the phone with his momma that we [Black people] don’t belong out here, he was going to kill him and he was never going to see is mom again.”
“I’m shaking because why would somebody make something like this up?!” Caramouche added. “Like a 13-year-old doesn’t really know about stuff like this. What he saw was real.”
Simon, who covered the story at length, also defended Parker against the naysayers, urging critics to keep their comments to themselves until the police investigation was complete. On Monday, she confirmed that Parker hadn’t been abducted after all.
BREAKING: HPD says #ZavionParker was NOT abducted. (My co-worker @TomAbrahams13 has more info on his thread). https://t.co/oc7BKAA7JY
— Erica Simon (@EricaOnABC13) June 4, 2018
Houston PD said they don’t plan to file charges against anyone involved in the false report.
