Civil rights attorney Ben Crump is demanding justice for the family of Kadarius Smith, a 17-year-old who died after a cop allegedly chased after him in a police cruiser, and then ran him over.
Crump stated in a press release that Smith was walking home with some friends in the early morning hours of March 21 when a Leland police cruiser “began chasing him,” according to witness statements. Smith’s mother alleged that her son “was run over from behind leaving police cruiser tire marks on his back.” Smith later died in a hospital.
“The circumstances surrounding Kadarius’ death are truly heartbreaking for his mother and loved ones. This tragedy should have never happened and the officers involved must be held accountable. It is unconscionable that an officer would fatally run over a teenager who was running away from them,” Crump stated.
The officer’s identity hasn’t been released and the family hasn’t been allowed to see unedited video footage of what happened that night, according to the Mississippi Free-Press.
“We demand that the officer who was driving the cruiser be immediately terminated and that the unedited video footage is released to the family,” Crump said in Wednesday’s statement. “Kadarius’ family deserves accountability and answers as to how and why he was killed by an officer in such an inhumane way.”
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is reportedly leading an investigation into Smith’s death.
Crump is representing the family of Dexter Wade, a Black man who was killed in March 2023 on a Mississippi interstate after being run over by an off-duty cop in a Jackson police cruiser. Authorities didn’t tell the family for months. Instead, they buried Wade in a pauper’s grave and left his loved ones thinking he was missing before finally notifying them of his death later that year.
Another report identified more than 200 people who had been buried behind the same penal farm where Wade had been buried. Some families have come forward saying they had no idea of their loved ones’ whereabouts or their deaths until that report had been released.
The Leland Police Department hasn’t issued a comment on Kadarius Smith’s death. Leland, Mississippi is more than 100 miles northwest of the state capitol Jackson. According to Census data, the town was populated by nearly 4,000 people in 2022. At the time, 66 percent of the population was Black, while 28 percent was white.
