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Dexter Wade should be here right now preparing to celebrate the holiday with his family and friends. Instead, Wade has been laid to rest surrounded by family and friends who are grieving his death after a tumultuous seven months of searching for him. While his death might have been an accident, the responsibility for the heartbreaking search for his body lies strictly with the Jackson Police Department.
According to ABC News, Wade’s family was finally able to hold a proper funeral for their beloved on Monday afternoon. The Rev. Al Sharpton delivered a double-edged eulogy designed to get two very specific messages across.
“I wanted to come for two reasons, Ms. Wade,” Sharpton said, addressing Dexter Wade’s mother, Bettersten Wade Robinson. “I wanted to give words of comfort to the family, but I wanted to give words of discomfort to the state of Mississippi.”
“What happened to Dexter is a disgrace, a national outrage and should be treated as such,” he added. “… His life mattered to his mama, to his daughters and we’re gonna make it matter all over this country.”
Wade’s mother and two daughters were in attendance as well as several local activists, but one noted attendee was Tiffany Carter, who is the mother of Rasheem Carter. BOSSIP posted several stories on Rasheem as his suspicious death in Mississippi went largely unmentioned in mainstream media.
Dexter’s mother Bettersten Wade Robinson still believes that Jackson police engaged in a cover-up to protect the off-duty officer who struck and killed Dexter with his vehicle. Family representative and ubiquitous civil rights attorney Ben Crump believes the same.
“The fact that Dexter had a state identification card and several other identifying items shows us that there was a concerted effort to keep the truth and manner of his death from his family,” Crump said in a statement on Thursday. “There is no excuse, not even incompetence, for not notifying a next of kin of an identified man’s death.”
We will continue to provide updates about this case as more information becomes available to the public. Rest in peace, Dexter Wade.
