Bettersten Wade Robinson looked for her son, Dexter Wade, for greater than 5 months earlier than she realized that he was killed on March 5 and buried in a potter’s subject after he was struck by an off-duty Jackson police officer in a police cruiser.
Wade Robinson, who’s accusing the county and police of an alleged “cover-up,” spoke with ABC Information Stay’s Linsey Davis in an interview that aired on Prime Wednesday night time and demanded “accountability.”
“Proper now I am hoping I can get to some sort of reply as to why it occurred and what was the rationale that it occurred. However proper now I am nonetheless not happy,” she mentioned.
“It is a regular cover-up,” she added.
Dexter Wade is pictured in an undated photograph.
Courtesy Wade household
After discovering out from police that her son was buried in a potter’s subject, Wade Robinson sought to recuperate his physique and provides him a correct burial. However when she arrived for her son’s exhumation on Monday morning, she quickly realized that his physique had been exhumed hours earlier with out her presence and for the grieving mom, this added insult to harm.
“They put him within the floor with out my permission. They dug him up with out my permission,” an outraged Wade Robinson mentioned as she stood close to the empty gravesite exterior the Raymond Detention Heart on Monday morning.
“Now I requested, can I exhume my youngster and attempt to get some peace … now y’all take that from me,” a tearful Wade Robinson mentioned as she stood close to her son’s burial place exterior the Raymond Detention Heart. “I could not even see him come out the bottom. Yall did not give me the time to see him earlier than he took his final breath. I did not get to see him come from the bottom. Cowl up!”
Household lawyer Ben Crump advised reporters on Monday that the household had reached an association with the Hinds County Board of Supervisors that the exhumation would happen at 11:30 native time that day, however after they arrived they realized that Wade’s physique had been exhumed at 8:00 a.m. with out his household’s presence.
“No person received permission from the household to take Dexter out the bottom within the early morning hours. It was an agreed upon place with the county that Ms. Bettersten Wade will likely be right here at 11:30 to begin the exhumation of her son and so they disrespected her,” Crump mentioned. “And like a thief within the night time, they went and pulled the physique out the bottom.”
Dexter Wade is pictured in an undated photograph.
Courtesy Wade household
Crump shared a letter with ABC Information that the household obtained from the Hinds County Board of Supervisors indicating that the exhumation would happen at 11:30 a.m.
ABC Information reached out to all 5 members of the Hinds County Board of Supervisors to inquire in regards to the letter and the timing of the exhumation however requests for feedback weren’t returned.
County Administrator Kenny Wayne Jones advised ABC Information affiliate in Jackson, WAPT, that the incident was “very unlucky,” however mentioned there was “no cover-up or something like that. Simply miscommunication.”
ABC Information reached out to Jones for additional remark.
Wade Robinson advised Davis she is “disillusioned” that nobody is “keen to take duty” for her burying her son after which exhuming him — each with out the household’s data or permission.
“What number of errors you’ll be able to have earlier than you’re taking duty,” she mentioned.
“No person has got here to me and mentioned that they’re sorry,” she added.
Wade Robinson mentioned that she reported her son lacking on March 14, 9 days after she had final heard from him on March 5. She did not be taught till Aug. 24 — greater than 5 months after his dying – that her son had been struck and killed by an off-duty Jackson police officer the night time of March 5, when he was strolling throughout an area freeway.
Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba beforehand acknowledged throughout his State of the Metropolis handle on Oct. 26 that there was a “lack of communication” that led to the months-long delay in letting Wade’s household know what had occurred to him.
Based on Lumumba, Wade had no ID on his particular person when he was killed however he did have a prescription drug bottle that ultimately allowed the medical expert’s workplace to determine him.
“The failure was that in the end, there was a scarcity of communication with the lacking particular person’s division, the coroner’s workplace and accident investigation,” Lumumba mentioned.
Lumumba mentioned that “at no level have we recognized, nor did any investigation reveal that there was any police misconduct on this course of.”
“The accident was investigated and it was decided that it was, the truth is, an accident and that there was no malicious intent,” he added.
ABC Information reached out to the Jackson Police Division however a spokesperson declined to remark.
Crump advised Davis in an interview that aired on Wednesday it’s “unbelievable” that it took police greater than 5 months to tell his household of his dying, particularly when “they know who Ms. Bettersten was” as a result of she filed a lacking particular person report with the Jackson Police Division and offered her identify and handle to police.
“They knew the place he lived as a result of he had medicine in his pocket that had his physician and the physician advised them that Ms. Bettersten was his subsequent of kin,” Crump mentioned.
Following the exhumation, the Jackson Police Chief deferred ABC Information’ questions concerning allegations of a “cover-up” to the town of Jackson.
Melissa Payne, a spokeswoman for the town of Jackson, advised ABC Information that it will be “inappropriate” for the town to remark as a result of “the Metropolis had no half in both his burial or exhumation. That was completely with the county.”
Crump, together with household lawyer Dennis Candy, are actually calling on the U.S. Division of Justice to research the circumstances surrounding Wade’s dying, burial and exhumation.
“Lawyer Candy and I’ll completely make the case for transparency that continues to be denied to Ms. Bettersten. Only a low down soiled disgrace what occurred right here immediately – lowdown soiled disgrace,” Crump mentioned on Monday. “And as Ms. Bettersten mentioned when she first known as us … it was a canopy.”
ABC Information has reached out to the Division of Justice for remark.
The workplace of Hinds County District Lawyer Jody Owens mentioned in an announcement on Oct. 27 that his workplace working with the Jackson Police Division, Hinds County Coroner’s Workplace, and different related businesses to research Wade’s dying, the failure to inform his subsequent of kin in a well timed method and the “irregularities surrounding the disposition of Mr. Wade’s physique.”
“We ask for the general public’s persistence as this necessary work is undertaken,” Owens added.
ABC Information’ Sabina Ghebremedhin contributed to this story.
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