JACKSON, Miss.—A year after the death and burial of Dexter Wade without his family’s notice sparked a national outcry and accusations of a Jackson police coverup, his mother says she still doesn’t have complete answers about what happened to her son.
“They say he got killed on the freeway, but I don’t have no knowledge of what actually happened. We don’t have no idea, no clue. All we know is that they said he was hit on the freeway. Somebody hit him,” Bettersten Wade said at a rally near the police precinct in downtown Jackson on Wednesday morning.
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Dexter Wade’s family held a funeral service for him at New Horizon Church in Jackson, Miss., on Nov. 20, 2023, after the county exhumed his body for reburial. Photo by Shaunicy Muhammad ” data-medium-file=”https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Dexter-Wade-photos_cred-Shaunicy-Muhammad.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1″ data-large-file=”https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Dexter-Wade-photos_cred-Shaunicy-Muhammad.jpg?fit=780%2C520&ssl=1″ src=”https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Dexter-Wade-photos_cred-Shaunicy-Muhammad.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1″ alt=”Dexter Wade photo poster at funeral” class=”wp-image-37764″ srcset=”https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Dexter-Wade-photos_cred-Shaunicy-Muhammad.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Dexter-Wade-photos_cred-Shaunicy-Muhammad.jpg?resize=300%2C200&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Dexter-Wade-photos_cred-Shaunicy-Muhammad.jpg?resize=768%2C512&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Dexter-Wade-photos_cred-Shaunicy-Muhammad.jpg?resize=24%2C16&ssl=1 24w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Dexter-Wade-photos_cred-Shaunicy-Muhammad.jpg?resize=36%2C24&ssl=1 36w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Dexter-Wade-photos_cred-Shaunicy-Muhammad.jpg?resize=48%2C32&ssl=1 48w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Dexter-Wade-photos_cred-Shaunicy-Muhammad.jpg?w=1200&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Dexter-Wade-photos_cred-Shaunicy-Muhammad-1024×683.jpg?w=370&ssl=1 370w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Dexter-Wade-photos_cred-Shaunicy-Muhammad-1024×683.jpg?w=400&ssl=1 400w” sizes=”(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px”>A memorial for Dexter Wade is pictured at his funeral on Nov. 20, 2023. Photo by Shaunicy Muhammad
Friends and family joined her, holding up signs bearing Dexter Wade’s face.
“Who was the officer?” one of Wade’s loved ones shouted from the crowd.
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Although the Hinds County Coroner ruled his death an accident, Bettersten Wade said the Jackson Police Department still has not given her the name of the officer who struck and killed her son.
“I haven’t heard anything about charges against nobody,” Wade told reporters. “They’re just accepting it as an accident.”
Unidentified JPD Officer Killed Wade Last Year
NBC News reporter Jon Schuppe first reported on the death and burial of Dexter Wade last year.
Wade, a father of two, was walking along Interstate 55 in Jackson on the night of March 5, 2023, when an off-duty Jackson Police officer driving along the highway struck and killed him, officials say.
Bettersten Wade filed a missing person’s report
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