Family calls for justice after man struck and killed by police car, buried without notice

The circle of relatives of Dexter Wade is asking for justice after the 37-year-old man used to be allegedly fatally struck by a Jackson, Mississippi Police Department cruiser in March and later buried in a potter’s box without his circle of relatives understanding.

“My son — I never thought in a million years that he would leave me,” Wade’s mom, Bettersten Wade Robinson, stated in a tearful press convention Monday in Jackson. “He was my oldest son and I wouldn’t have never thought this’d happened to him.”

Wade Robinson reported her son lacking on March 14, 9 days after she had remaining heard from him on March 5. She did not be told till August 24 — greater than 5 months after his loss of life – that Dexter Wade have been struck and killed by an off-duty Jackson police officer the evening of March 5, as he used to be strolling throughout a neighborhood freeway.

According to civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who’s representing the circle of relatives, an investigator from the coroner’s workplace recognized Dexter Wade the use of fingerprints and reported that id to Jackson Police on March 9, simply 4 days after Wade’s loss of life.

Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba stated on Oct. 26, all the way through his State of the City address, that Wade had no ID on his individual however he did have a prescription drug bottle.

The Jackson Police Department used the information from the bottle to touch Dexter Wade’s clinical supplier, who in flip introduced government a host “that was not accurate or not a good number to be used any further, and so they were unable to make contact,” stated Lumumba, noting that this transpired sooner than Bettersten Wade Robinson first reported her son lacking.

His frame remained in a morgue for months sooner than being discharged and buried in a potter’s box.

“Because of that, Mr. Wade, they were unable to find his family within an expeditious period of time, and he was later buried once the coroner went to the Hinds County Board of Supervisors in order to get permission to do so,” Lumumba stated.

Bettersten Wade stated she adopted up frequently with police for any news referring to what had came about to her son, and did not obtain any solutions from government till August when she used to be notified of his loss of life.

“The failure was that ultimately, there was a lack of communication with the missing persons division, the coroner’s office and accident investigation,” Lumumba stated. The mayor additionally famous that “The accident was investigated and it was determined that it was, in fact, an accident, and that there was no malicious intent.”

Crump on Monday, alternatively, puzzled why police did not talk over with Robinson Wade’s house to tell her of her son’s loss of life.

“If they really wanted to notify her that the police officer had hit and killed her son when he crossed the street, they could have came and knocked on the door. It defies all logic and common sense,” Crump stated.

The Hinds County District Attorney’s Office stated in a remark that it’s operating with the Jackson Police Department, Hinds County Coroner’s Office, and different related businesses to analyze Wade’s loss of life, the failure to inform his subsequent of relations in a well timed method, and the “irregularities surrounding the disposition of Mr. Wade’s body.”

“We ask for the public’s patience as this important work is undertaken,” the remark reads.

The Jackson Police Department declined ABC News’ request for remark at the allegations.

Wade’s circle of relatives is looking for Wade’s frame to be exhumed so they are able to facilitate an impartial post-mortem and carry out a “proper funeral and burial.”

“Currently, his grave is marked by a pole and number in a pauper’s field,” Crump stated all the way through Monday’s press convention.

Mayor Lumumba stated all the way through his State of the City deal with that “at no point have we identified, nor did any investigation reveal that there was any police misconduct in this process.” He also referred to as the monthslong wait to inform Wade Robinson of her son’s loss of life a “failure.”

“To add insult to that trauma, it is even more difficult to not have the ability to grant a proper burial for that child,” Lumumba stated.

During the mayor’s State of the City deal with, Jackson Police Chief Joseph Wade — who has no relation to Dexter Wade — introduced his condolences to Wade’s circle of relatives.

“I cannot imagine the pain that they’re feeling,” stated the police leader. “I put measures in place to make sure something like this does not happen on my watch. I’ve also put the right people in place to make sure this does not happen on my watch.”

Crump accused police of an alleged “cover-up” for the failure to inform Robinson for months that her son have been killed by a police officer.

“Far too often in America … we just accept this police narrative,” stated Crump Monday. “Ms. Bettersten, you never gave up on your baby boy, your only boy, and the system did not sweep him under the rug. And we’re never going to let Dexter Wade be swept under the rug. We’re going to keep fighting until we get justice.”