[Editor’s note: This story first appeared in the Mississippi Free Press.] The police shooting that killed 1-year-old Kohen Wiley as he sat in his mother’s lap in a Walmart parking lot in Senatobia, Miss., in June “was justified,” Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office announced on October 19.
“Today, the Office of the Attorney General announced it has completed the review of a June 14, 2026 incident in Senatobia involving one officer with the Senatobia Police Department,” the attorney general’s statement said. “In this incident, the Attorney General’s Office found the use of force was justified. Pursuant to Section 45-1-6 of the Mississippi Code, the review followed an investigation by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation.” Fitch is a 2027 Republican candidate for governor.
Officers were responding to a shoplifting call alleging that Wiley’s mother, Vellesiya Wiley, and Latoya Ferrell had stolen a pack of diapers. The women exited the store with the child as officers arrived, entered their vehicle and began to leave the parking lot. Officers drew their weapons, and Vellesiya Wiley lifted her son up to show the officers that a child was in the car. One officer fired into the vehicle, killing the baby as she held him. A bullet also wounded Ferrell.
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which investigated the shooting, alleged on the day of the shooting that “the driver drove in the direction of the officers, almost striking one.”
As of press time, the Mississippi Department of Public Safety has released none of the video surveillance of the shooting of Kohen Wiley, neither the body-cam footage nor the overhead video from the Walmart parking lot where Wiley was shot. A short clip from a bystander was posted on the internet shortly after the shooting, showing neither the shots being fired nor the car driving towards officers.
Neither woman has been charged with a crime, and officials have not released any evidence of shoplifting. Wiley and both women are Black; the officer identified as the subject of the investigation, Hunter Foster, is white.
A spokesperson for the Department of Public Safety confirmed to the Mississippi Free Press that video surveillance footage of the shooting will be released to media organizations in short order via public records requests. The Mississippi Free Press has submitted a request for the available footage.
“There is blood on your hands. Not just Hunter Foster, but everyone that is complicit in the cover-up, including Attorney General Lynn Fitch, and everything that happens as a result,” Marquell Bridges, a Mississippi activist who is president of the Building Bridges Coalition, told the Mississippi Free Press on Monday after Fitch’s announcement.
In a statement Monday, civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the Wiley family, decried Fitch’s decision.
“A 1-year-old baby was shot and killed by a police officer, and now the state of Mississippi says that use of force was justified. How can anyone accept that conclusion when Kohen’s family and the public still have not been allowed to see the body-camera footage?” Crump said. “This is a department whose chief was fired after reports of racial slurs in his text messages, and whose officer faced a complaint alleging a racially offensive remark two days before he shot Kohen. If the footage supports the state’s decision, release it. We will not stop fighting until this family gets the truth.”
In July, Mississippi Today reported on internal complaints showing that Foster faced accusations of making a racially offensive remark to a coworker days prior to Wiley’s shooting. Additionally, two previous incidents in which Foster was accused of police misconduct in court cases surfaced after the shooting. One of those cases was dismissed; the other ended in a confidential settlement.
Last month, the City of Senatobia fired its white police chief, Harold Vanderford, after the New York Times, Mississippi Today and Verite reported on racist text messages in which he repeatedly used racist slurs.
Follow the Mississippi Free Press’ coverage of Kohen Wiley and read past stories here.
