JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – Civil rights attorney Ben Crump and the family of Dexter Wade are calling for justice for Wade, who was recently discovered to be dead.

Crump said 37-year-old Dexter Wade left his mother’s house on March 5, 2023, and did not return home. His mother, Bettersten Wade, said she reported him missing on March 14 and did not know that he was deceased until August 24.

They said Wade had been hit by a Jackson police cruiser in March and later buried in a pauper’s field.

According to Crump, an investigator from the coroner’s office identified Dexter using fingerprints and reportedly turned it over to Jackson police to do the proper death notification on March 9. However, Wade said she did not receive any answers from authorities until August.

Wade’s mother said this is a story she knows too well. Her brother, George Robinson, was killed by a Jackson police officer in 2019.

Wade’s family, along with Crump, will petition the court to exhume Wade’s body, so they can facilitate an independent autopsy and provide him with a proper funeral and burial.

“We are going to ask for us to depart the Department of Justice to investigate this matter because the family does not have trust in the Mississippi officials. And would you have this happen to your brother and your child? And then to have the Mississippi attorney general trying to overturn the conviction by a jury because they convicted the police officer for killing your brother? I mean, how could you have faith that they were going to do right now?” Crump questioned.

Rev. Al Sharpton and the National Action Network will help the family coordinate Wade’s funeral.