Mother Claims 'Cover-Up' as Off-Duty Officer Fatally Strikes Mississippi Man, Keeping Family in the Dark

The mother of Dexter Wade, a man from Mississippi, voiced serious allegations of a cover-up regarding her son's tragic demise. Wade, aged 37, was fatally struck by an off-duty officer driving a Jackson Police Department vehicle on March 5 while walking near Interstate 55 and McDowell Road. 

Astonishingly, it wasn't until late August that his mother, Bettersten Wade, discovered the devastating truth of her son's death, despite having reported him missing on March 14. Reports from WLBT, WAPT, and NBC News highlighted this delay in informing the family about Dexter Wade's tragic fate.

In October, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba attributed the six-month delay to a miscommunication. However, Bettersten Wade remained skeptical and unsatisfied, seeking answers about the circumstances surrounding her son's death. 

In an interview with ABC News, she expressed her anguish, saying, "Right now I'm hoping I can get to some kind of answer as to why it happened and what was the reason that it happened. But right now I'm still not satisfied."

Accusations of a cover-up intensified when Wade's mother aimed to provide her son a proper burial. She recounted to ABC News her distressing experience when Dexter's body was unexpectedly exhumed before the agreed-upon time, depriving the family of the chance to bid him a final farewell. "Y’all didn't give me the time to see him before he took his last breath. I didn't get to see him come from the ground. Cover up," she lamented during the interview.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump reinforced the family's claims, highlighting an unsettling incident during the exhumation process. 

He revealed discrepancies, citing an independent pathologist's discovery of Dexter's wallet and state identification card in his jeans' pocket. This discovery contradicted earlier assertions by county officials who had stated finding no identification other than a bottle of pills bearing Dexter Wade's name.

Bettersten Wade, expressing her distress over the exhumation and the subsequent revelations, questioned the handling of the situation. She raised poignant queries, wondering why authorities didn’t use the found wallet to locate Dexter when he was lying on the freeway, allowing her to see her son one last time.

County administrator Kenny Wayne Jones acknowledged the untimely exhumation, labeling it "very unfortunate" but denied any cover-up, attributing the incident to a miscommunication.

[SOURCE]