The family of 19-year-old twin brothers found fatally shot on a Georgia mountain this month have rejected a police theory that one killed the other and then himself in an apparent murder-suicide.
Qaadir Malik Lewis and Naazir Rahim Lewis, who were about to turn 20, were found by hikers at the summit of Bell Mountain in Hiawassee on the morning of Saturday, March 8. The Georgia Bureau of Investigations said in a statement that both men had gunshot wounds and “the preliminary investigation reveals the deaths to be a murder-suicide.”
“They’re very protective of each other. They love each other,” Rahim Brawner, an uncle, told NBC affiliate WXIA of Atlanta.” They’re like inseparable. I couldn’t imagine them hurting each other because I’ve never seen them get into a fistfight before.”
The GBI said in a brief Sunday update that autopsies have been completed on the pair, but a medical examiner ruling had not been released because further forensic testing was needed. NBC News has reached out to the GBI for comment.
The pair, from Lawrenceville, Georgia, had planned to travel to Boston to see friends and were due to fly at 7 a.m. on March 7. Authorities say they never made the flight, and their bodies were found 90 miles away from their home in an area their family says they had never visited.
The twins’ family have said the police explanation makes no sense, arguing the boys were close and had no history of conflict.
“We want answers, we want to know exactly what happened to the twins,” Samira Brawner, an aunt, told WXIA.
The family said they were bewildered as to why the pair ended up on an unfamiliar mountain that is popular with hikers and tourists and not far from the North Carolina state line. The twin’s plane tickets were still in their wallets.
“How did they end up out in the mountains? They don’t hike out there, they’ve never been out there,” Brawner said. “They don’t know anything about Hiawassee, Georgia. They never even heard of Bell Mountain, so how did they end up right there?”
The GBI stated that their preliminary findings suggest a murder-suicide, but the family strongly disputes that conclusion.
“We knew right away that wasn’t true,” Brawner said.
Yasmine Brawner, another aunt, told WXIA: “They had a huge support system. We know them. They wouldn’t do anything like this. To say they did this to each other? No. Something happened in those mountains, and we want answers.”
On a GoFundMe page set up to raise money for funeral expenses, Yasmine Brawner wrote: “In recent new reports, it was claimed that they took their own lives. My nephews wouldn’t do this! They came from a family of love, and twins wanted so much for their future, they had dreams of starting their very own clothing line.”
The page had raised more than $22,500 as of Monday morning.
