Kendra Bazile, along with family friend “Junior,” engage in the first of a four-part series entailing the single-car crash that claimed the life of her son, Jordan Whitley, on January 26, 2024 and the potential for shortcomings on the parts of first responders who responded to and/or investigated the response since the time of the crash.
As everyone is aware, EBRP EMS has been a hot topic on this blog for several months now.
Let us begin this feature by saying that we know that first responders (EMS, law enforcement, and firefighters) face a difficult and challenging situation every time they respond to an incident. Our purpose in publishing a four-part, in-depth deep dive about the single-car accident claiming the life of Jordan Whitley on January 26, 2024 is not to denigrate the hard work these first responders provide to all of us every day as they put on their uniforms, risk their lives, and go to work making our lives safer.
In fact, Whitley’s mother, Kendra Bazile, who was prominently featured on this absolutely superb investigative feature by WBRZ (Channel 2 in Baton Rouge)’s Bess Casserleign on September 3, 2024, fully acknowledges that her son was driving at a very high rate of speed (reported to be 113 MPH two seconds before impact with a tree, and 87 MPH upon impact with that tree) on Nicholson Drive and the fact that his blood alcohol content (BAC) was above (though just barely at 0.089 BAC) Louisiana’s BHC cutoff for drunk driving, which is 0.08 BAC.
The circumstances preceding Whitley’s crash notwithstanding, Bazile has been on a mission to ascertain what the responses were on the parts of EBRP’s EMS folk, the BR Fire Department, the EBRP Sheriff’s Office, and Louisiana State Police (LSP).
With this four-part, in-depth series with Bazile and family friend, “Junior,” we hope to place a spotlight on many of the findings of Bazile’s extensive research, her frustrations thereof, and us having a goal of ensuring that, if in fact shortcomings did transpire entailing the response surrounding Whitley’s death, that valuable lessons are learned from the episode in order that any such potential shortcomings aren’t repeated for anyone else in the future irrespective of what prompted the need for first responders to be called out to handle a similar wreck.
Before we present Segment One of this fascinating four-part series, let us include a quote that Bazile informed us that she wants included in this first feature that she inadvertently forgot to mention. Here’s her quote:
In 2024, I reached out to the Mayor’s office several times asking for help in finding answers to my questions/concerns, with no success. I also reached out to the members of the Metropolitan Council, with little to no response from the majority of them. I’ve contacted other local representatives as well with no success.
So, let us now present Installment One of this Four-Part Series which briefly introduces Bazile and Junior to our viewing audience and fully integrates Cassrleigh’s phenomenal investigative report into the feature:
10/17/25: Bazile and Junior introduce themselves briefly and Bazile states her goals in continuing to pursue answers entailing the accident that claimed her son’s life on January 24, 2024.
Stay tuned, folks! There are three (3) more episodes to come, and we know you’ll be fascinated by many revelations that Bazile and Junior make in those features.