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A Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks game warden puts a hat on the head of Ashton Kemp, 15, who is in the terminal stage of cancer. One of Kemp's final wishes was to be a game warden and he was sworn in Sunday morning. (Hunter Cloud | The Daily Leader)

Med Palmer, manager of Copiah Wildlife Management Area, speaks with Ashton Kemp. (Hunter Cloud | The Daily Leader)

People pray for Ashton Kemp before he goes on a special hunt. (Hunter Cloud | The Daily Leader)

BROOKHAVEN — In the parking lot of Home Depot, Game Wardens with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks swore in a 15-year-old boy to join their ranks Sunday morning. Ashton Kemp was given a game warden’s hat, jacket, badge and an arrowhead as one of his last wishes came true. 

Copiah Wildlife Management Area manager Med Palmer pushed Kemp around in a wheelchair to a shady area to be sworn in.  

Kemp was diagnosed with stage 4 genetic metastatic melanoma. He received the diagnosis when he was 13 and went through radiation, chemo and other medications. The family reports the cancer is terminal. A recent scan revealed Kemp had a few days left to live and a week if he was lucky. 

A retired game warden told Kemp his badge number 529 was special. John David Southerland of Meadville previously wore the badge number 529 until he retired. He was known as “Tubb,” by his colleagues. Southerland died in 2020. 

“He is smiling right now. He would have been here and been leading the charge,” a warden said. “He was a wonderful man and a Christian.”

Officers gathered around Kemp and prayed before they left to go on a special hunt. 

Kemp was loaded into a Whitetail Properties Real Estate truck and escorted by game wardens and the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office to a hunt this afternoon. His other last wish is to kill a special deer. Wardens told The Daily Leader he will have the chance to hunt an Axis Deer at an enclosure outside of Caseyville.

MDWFP Master Sergeant Sheila Smith said the officers who were there to help with making the wishes come true were there because they wanted to be there. 

“That is what makes me proud to be an officer and proud of my guys, they truly care,” Smith said. “Even the deputies. I called the sheriff just so he would know what was going on with that many trucks and his guys volunteered to come as well.”

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