The families of four men who died or allegedly were beaten in encounters with Mississippi law enforcement gathered outside the state attorney general’s office Thursday to urge officials to stop denying them access to video capturing the incidents, years after they happened.
The families said officials have blocked them for up to three years from viewing video footage and other key police records that could shed light on what happened, leaving them with unanswered questions. Those cases are:
- Dexter Wade, 37, who was struck and killed by an off-duty officer driving a Jackson Police Department SUV in March 2023. His death garnered national attention. The department buried the father of two in an unmarked grave and did not notify his family until five months after he was killed.
- Jason Simmons, an armed 40-year-old from Saucier who was shot and killed in June by deputies with the Harrison County Sheriff’s Department after they arrived to pick him up for a court-ordered mental health evaluation, according to police. Simmons’ family said he struggled with substance abuse and mental health issues.
- Jayden Bridges, 22, of Pinola, who died in a car chase with a Mississippi Highway Patrol trooper in Copiah County last year after police suspected he was the subject of reports of drag racing in the area, according to the sheriff’s office.
- Raju Brandon Neapollioun, a Hattiesburg man who is now disabled from traumatic brain injuries after Deputy Sheriff Kelby Lewis allegedly beat him while he was an inmate at the Forrest County Adult Detention Center in 2023, according to a dismissed civil suit that Neapollioun filed against Lewis and the sheriff’s office.
As members of the public, the families have the right to request access to the information under state law, which broadly allows public records to be “available for inspection by any person,” with limited exceptions. But Bobby DiCello, the families’ civil-rights attorney, said state and local officials have continuously denied their requests, citing ongoing investigations into the incidents.
“If the video shows things that are bad, things that are inhuman, things that are wrong, things that are wicked, let it into the light,” DiCello said. “Let it be known.”…