Mississippi AG Says Police Shooting That Killed 1-Year-Old Was ‘Justified’

A Mississippi family’s attorney is demanding the release of body camera surveillance footage after the state attorney general ruled that an officer was “justified” in the shooting that killed 1-year-old Kohen Kartier Wiley.

“How can anyone accept that conclusion when Kohen’s family and the public still have not been allowed to see the body-camera footage?” attorney Ben Crump said in a statement Monday.

Four months after police shot at a car Kohen was riding in, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office said it completed the review of the case and “found the use of force was justified.”

Kohen was fatally shot June 14 while inside a vehicle outside a Walmart in Senatobia, Mississippi, where officers had responded to a reported shoplifting incident involving diapers. 

Members of Kohen’s family have denied that any shoplifting took place. 

The officer was placed on administrative leave following the shooting. The officer faced an internal complaint alleging he made a racially offensive remark toward a Black officer two days before Kohen’s death, according to Mississippi Today.

On Sept. 1, the Senatobia Board of Aldermen voted unanimously to fire Police Chief Harold Vanderford after The New York Times reported he repeatedly used racial slurs in text messages. 

Despite repeated calls for their release, body-camera and surveillance footage of the fatal encounter has not been provided to Kohen’s family, Crump said Monday.

After Kohen’s death, his mother, Vellesiya Wiley, expressed her grief.

“ I watched my baby take his first breath, and I watched my baby take his last breath,” she said during a press conference at Gospel Temple Church of God in Christ in Senatobia, eight days  after the shooting.

What happened?

The Senatobia Police Department released a statement on social media shortly after the shooting, acknowledging that the investigation had been turned over to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and promising eventual transparency.

“The Senatobia Police Department is currently investigating an officer-involved shooting that occurred today at approximately 2:05 PM at Walmart,” the June 14 statement said. “Preliminary reports indicate that officers responded to a report of shoplifting, which led to officers discharging their firearms.”

Walmart released a statement to Action 5 News in Memphis, which is about 40 miles from Senatobia.

“We’re saddened by what took place at our Senatobia, MS, store,” the statement reads. “The safety of our associates and customers is a top priority. We’re working with law enforcement as they continue investigating.”

WREG reported that, before the shooting, a witness saw two women exit the store: one carrying a single box of diapers, and one carrying the infant child. Family told WREG that Kohen’s mother was riding in the passenger seat holding the child when the officer shot him and that the aunt, who was driving, was in critical condition. Another witness told the news station that she saw the car driving away with police officers chasing after it on foot just before hearing gunshots. 

“Senatobia Police Department get away with too much stuff,” WREG reported Kohen’s great-grandmother Carolyn Stokes, as saying. “I hear about it all the time. It’s in the news all the time. Y’all probably down here all the time, recording this stuff, but it’s just too much.”

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