Mississippi Attorney General Says Fatal Police Shooting of 1-Year-Old ‘Justified’ | Mississippi

On Monday, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office announced that the police shooting of 1-year-old Kohen Wiley while he sat on his mother’s lap “was justified.” This statement comes four months after the baby’s murder in Senatobia, Mississippi.

On June 14, officers in Senatobia, a small town near Memphis, responded to a shoplifting call alleging that Vellesiya Wiley, the baby’s mother, and Latoya Ferrell, a friend, had stolen a package of diapers. Neither woman has been charged with a crime. Authorities have not released any evidence of shoplifting.

According to police reports, on the day of the shooting, the women and child walked out of the store, got into their vehicle and began to leave the parking lot when officers arrived.

The police took out their weapons. Wiley lifted the baby to indicate there was a child in the car. An officer, identified by other records as Sgt Hunter Foster, fired at the vehicle, killing Kohen Wiley and injuring Ferrell. Foster is white; Both Wileys and Ferrell are black.

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which investigated the shooting, said the driver “screwed toward the officers, almost hitting one.” But civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents the family, released an independent autopsy that indicates Wiley was shot from the side of the car, not the front, contradicting officers’ statements that Ferrell was walking toward them.

“I watched my baby take his first breath, and I watched my baby take his last breath,” Kohen’s mother said at a news conference after the shooting.

It is not yet known if and when law enforcement will release footage of the incident.

This shooting is just the most recent in a series of incidents involving the Senate Police Force. The city is approximately 40% black.

In September, the Senate fired its police chief, who allegedly used racist insults. And in 2023, the city made national news after a police officer arrested and placed in a cell a 10-year-old black boy who had urinated in public. This child was then sentenced to three months of probation.

Last year, city aldermen voted to replace the police chief in office at the time of the 10-year-old’s arrest with Harold Vanderford, who was in office when Wiley was killed. He was replaced by Angelica Maze, who is black.

“A 1-year-old child was shot and killed by an officer in this department, and nearly three months later, his family has still not been allowed to see the footage,” Crump said at the time. “The racist language that cost Chief Vanderford his job is exactly why this family can’t just be told to trust the process. MBI has the footage. Release it, finish the investigation into Sgt Foster, and give this family the facts they’ve been owed since the day Kohen died.”