Rev. Al Sharpton is joining calls for the Department of Justice to investigate the Jackson, Miss., police department after what some are calling a cover-up in the death of a Black man.
Dexter Wade, 37, died after being run over by a police officer in March. He was buried in a pauper’s grave on a penal farm without his mother’s knowledge. She was not informed of his death until six months later, despite the coroner having identified Wade and his next of kin at the time of his autopsy.
“What happened to Dexter Wade is one of the most disturbing things I have ever heard,” Sharpton said in a statement this week. “This is truly as bad as it gets. You have an off-duty officer who fatally strikes a Black man with an official vehicle, then a department that says they cannot locate a next of kin while his mother begs and pleads with anyone who will listen to find her son. The details clearly show this is a coverup — plain and simple.”
Sharpton said the Justice Department must investigate not only Wade’s death and burial, but the entire procedures, tactics, and culture of the Jackson Police Department.
“You cannot look at a single rotting tree and hope the rest of the forest is healthy,” he said. “We are not even a year removed from the murder of Tyre Nichols, and we are confronted with another law enforcement department brutally killing a Black man and then muddying their tracks. The Justice Department must set a precedent that if you commit an action as heinous as this, your entire house will be subject to scrutiny.”
Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba last week in his State of the City address attributed Wade’s burial to a “communications failure.”
Though an “unfortunate and tragic accident,” Lumumba said, there were no indications of “malicious intent” against Wade or his family.
“It is tragic to lose your child. It is tragic to suffer the consequences of having to bury your child before you pass. But to add insult to that trauma, it is even more difficult to not have the ability to have a proper burial for your child,” Lumumba said. “And for that we regret a circumstance that Mr. Wade’s family has had to deal with.”
Shaprton joins civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Wade’s family, in calls for the Justice Department to investigate.
On Monday, Crump described the case as a “cop killing cover up” and said he will help arrange for Wade’s body to be exhumed and for an independent autopsy.
“We’re never going to let Dexter Wade be swept under the rug,” said Crump. “We’re gonna keep fighting until we get justice for Dexter Wade.”