Officer Tatum — interviewer
Warren — Nolan's best friend
6:05
Tatum
Is there anything that you want to say you want people to know about this whole experience?
6:09
Warren
Yeah I mean from someone if someone's not from here it's kind of hard to understand you know where the island drops off and how the island works.
6:20
Tatum
Yeah.
6:20
Warren
But you know there's plenty of people out here especially on the 4th of July you know this where people come out to celebrate. And I mean if you fell the water you can see right here Brandon where it drops off.
6:30
Tatum
Yeah.
6:30
Warren
I mean you could see literally where it drops off. So I mean it goes from about waist deep water right there to neck deep and then it drops from neck deep all the way to like 17–20 foot.
6:40
Tatum
Wow.
6:40
Warren
I mean we weren't even a quarter mile out the island and when we were leaving and I mean it was 30 feet of water.
6:48
Tatum
Yeah.
6:48
Warren
But I mean if we're walking towards the east right now but if you walk down to the west that's where the west tip of the island is and that's where the current picks up very very bad.
6:57
Tatum
People talk about the phone situation. I I wanted to because the way you articulated I just walked in the water with my pants they're wet–
7:40
Warren
Yeah.
7:03
Tatum
–and you could tell right away that if you're hanging out in the water you–
7:09
Warren
Right.
7:09
Tatum
–it doesn't appear in my opinion that you would have your phone on you.
7:15
Warren
Right.
7:15
Tatum
Is that is that typical for people to have their phones or–
7:16
Warren
No I mean people come out here especially on the 4th and you know Memorial Day like you know days like that they come out here to celebrate and people get on the water to be off their phones first off. Second off if I'm sitting waist deep in water and all my friends are everybody's leaving their phone on a boat in a lake you know if you're sitting on a pond if no one's getting out of the water with their phone in their hand unless you know it's to take a quick picture but most of the pictures taken on the 4th of July we're on the boat.
7:44
Tatum
Yeah.
7:44
Warren
I mean and you know salt water if you drop your phone in salt water most of the time you're not going to get it back.
7:51
Tatum
Yeah.
7:51
Warren
I mean you know especially the water's murky right now because there's been a lot of rain. You can't see the visibility isn't good. The water isn't clear like it was last year around this time. And you know like no no one has their phone though usually. I mean unless you're crazy.
8:09
Tatum
Yeah.
8:09
Warren
I'm not walking around with my phone–
8:08
Tatum
Yeah yeah.
8:08
Warren
–in my hand. They've been walking around Horn Island you know?
8:11
Tatum
How many people left the phone on the boat? Was it just–Was it just his phone when y'all left or did–
8:16
Warren
Absolutely not.
8:17
Tatum
–other people have phones on the boat?
8:18
Warren
Like there was at least–Well I had to I rode out here on a different boat like I told you and um I grabbed my boat I mean I grabbed my phone when I left the Palm Beach to get on the boat with Triton I mean to get on the boat with Wyatt because we were having you know boat issues–
8:34
Tatum
Uh-huh.
8:34
Warren
–and when I got on the boat there was phones everywhere on the console. I mean everywhere. Like I mean there was everybody's phone that was sitting around the boat was on the console. Like we had phones that we didn't even know whose they were you know?
8:47
Tatum
Yeah.
8:47
Warren
And people just leave their phone especially when people are drinking and you know they're not in the right state of mind. A lot of people are like oh I'll just leave my phone I'll get it later you know?
8:56
Tatum
Yeah.
8:56
Warren
And that's the way it is around here you know you don't take your phone and walk around the island–
9:01
Tatum
Sure.
9:01
Warren
–you know there was plenty of phones on the boat and you know spread out between the three boats that we had. And I mean we had 20 plus people on the spread between our three boats. So of course everybody's phone was on the boat. I never saw someone in the water that day sitting with their phone in their hand scrolling on anything or even taking pictures in the water. Yeah someone might hop out the boat you know a lot of girls like to take pictures you know in the water and so do guys but you know girls want to take pictures in the water. Half a second you might hop out the boat and be like oh I'm snapping this picture of myself or of of someone else–
9:35
Tatum
Sure.
9:35
Warren
–but as soon as I get back in the boat I'm putting my phone up and I'm getting back in the water and I'm hanging out with my friends.
9:38
Tatum
Yeah that's common sense man. And and describe to me what what the day was like. I saw a video online. How hectic was it out here? I mean right now it's barren. There's not a lot of people out here–
9:49
Warren
Right.
9:49
Tatum
–but clearly that's not what it was on the 4th of July.
9:54
Warren
Right.
9:54
Tatum
So like how dense was it with with people here?
9:55
Warren
Well I mean you look at all the videos you know that are spread out online and a lot of them you know you can't believe what you see all the time on online. You know you know that better than anybody. But I mean there was boats lined up all the way down the island and there was rows. There was a first row there's a second row. We were in the third row where the it drops off and and then there was even boats in front of us and this went all the way down towards the east end of the island and then there was people on the east tip and we're on the north side now but there was people on the south side too lined up all the way down and if you talk to anybody on the coast about this they know that.
10:33
Tatum
So like how dense was it with with people here?
10:33
Warren
I mean Fourth of July is this is the hot spot. This is where people want to be. This is where people want to come out hang out with their family and friends.
10:38
Tatum
And and people say that you guys just left Nolan behind. I've seen reports of people saying that you just left him. I see reports of people saying that you asked him to get on the boat. You told him to get on boat. He didn't. What What's the truth in that?
10:53
Warren
Well Wyatt was having boat issues and the bilge wouldn't pump. So the bilge is basically a pump that releases water from your boat when water comes in. So I open the back hatch and there's water up to the batteries and that is obviously not good. There's water almost coming over the transom which is where your motor sits and which is the you know by the stern like in the back part of the boat. So obviously we were in emergency the boat we we're trying to save the boat. It's not like we didn't ask Nolan or we just left Nolan. Nolan decided to stay on the island with the girl that he was with. And the girl is a witness to that too.
11:30
Tatum
Yeah. I'm glad I'm glad you cleared that up because I think it's important for people to have the context–
11:39
Warren
Right.
11:39
Tatum
–of like what it was on that day what happened what didn't happen–
11:43
Warren
Right.
11:43
Tatum
And and and the beauty about–The beauty of all of this is that you guys have evidence–
11:47
Warren
Right.
11:47
Tatum
–to prove
11:49
Warren
Course.
11:49
Tatum
–that of course you asked Nolan to come on and different things like that.
11:51
Warren
Course.
11:51
Tatum
So but anyway man I I appreciate you–
11:53
Warren
Yes sir. Always.
11:53
Tatum
–you know giving me a a rundown–
11:57
Warren
Of course.
11:57
Tatum
–of kind of what it was like on that day.
11:58
Warren
Right.
11:58
Tatum
And hopefully people can understand what the truth is–
12:01
Warren
Right.
12:01
Tatum
–and make their own decision on facts.
12:03
Warren
Right. I mean based off like you know people there's not a lot of people that are from the Mississippi Gulf Coast that don't understand Horn Island and don't understand the way boating works. And you know boating is a tight-knit community. I like to fish a lot and you know there's you know everybody a lot of people know a lot of people. Everybody knows every–I know a lot of fishermen on the Gulf Coast. They know me and my buddies because we like to go on the water all the time. I mean that's what we do in the summer. And I mean a lot of people from the Gulf Coast know the truth behind oh you don't take your phone out the boat. You know the little facts. It's a difficult subject. This this Horn Island's like 11 miles long you know not to be exact but around 11 miles long. It's not like this is a sliver of an island. It's a fourth mile. It's like a sandbar. No this this goes on to even if we came around this corner right here Brandon we couldn't even see the end of the island–
12:54
Tatum
Oh really?
12:55
Warren
–cuz it was that long.
12:56
Tatum
Really?
12:56
Warren
Yeah. I mean–
12:57
Tatum
I thought that was the end right there.
12:58
Warren
No no no. I mean it goes all the way down there. And I mean it's a it's a big island. There's a lot of people out here. And I mean that's the truth. That's the way it was.