Toddler's fatal shooting by Mississippi officer was ‘justified,' Attorney General says

Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch made an announcement on Monday stating that the killing of 1-year-old Kohen Wiley by a police shooting was “justified” and that this concluded the state's investigation into the June 14 incident in Senatobia without any criminal charges filed against the officer involved.

The shooting took place in a Walmart parking lot when the police arrived for a reported theft complaint against Wiley’s mother, Vellesiya Wiley, and Latoya Ferrell for stealing some diapers and baby clothing.

New body-camera and surveillance video shows five officers surrounding the vehicle in which the women were seated as they reversed into another parked car. Then the car accelerates and jerks to the left side of the two officers, whereupon one or more officers shoot into the car, killing the infant who was sitting in his mother’s lap. One shot also injured Ferrell.

According to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, the driver “drove in the direction of the officers, almost striking one.”

The decision drew swift condemnation. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, representing the Wiley family, questioned how the conclusion could be accepted when the family and public had not been allowed to see body-camera footage.

Officials have not charged either woman, and they have not released evidence of shoplifting. Kohen and both women are Black; the officer, Hunter Foster, is white. Reporting revealed Foster faced a complaint alleging a racially offensive remark days before the shooting, and Senatobia’s police chief was later fired over racist text messages.

Protests have continued for weeks demanding transparency.