Mississippi Attorney General Rules Use of Force By Police Was Justified in Fatal Shooting of 1-Year-Old

Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch announced on Monday that a police officer's decision to open fire into a vehicle during a shoplifting response was legally justified, resolving the state's criminal investigation into the shooting that killed 1-year-old Kohen Wiley.

The incident occurred on June 14th outside a Walmart store in Senatobia, Mississippi, roughly 40 miles south of Memphis. Officers were responding to reports of allegedly stolen diapers and baby clothes. According to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, officers attempted to stop a vehicle carrying two Black women, Vellesiya Wiley and driver Latoya Ferrell, and the toddler. Authorities claimed the car drove toward law enforcement, nearly striking an officer, which prompted Sergeant Hunter Foster to fire into the vehicle.

Kohen Wiley, who was sitting on his mother's lap, was killed, while Ferrell suffered critical injuries. Neither woman has been charged with shoplifting or any other crime, and Kohen's mother has repeatedly denied that any theft took place.

In a short statement released four months after the incident, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch concluded:

"In this incident, the Attorney General's Office found the use of force was justified."

The Attorney General's conclusion drew immediate condemnation from the Wiley family and civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who highlighted that law enforcement has refused to publicly release or show the family any body-camera or surveillance footage from the parking lot.

Calling for transparency, Ben Crump released a statement challenging the state's determination:

"How can anyone accept that conclusion when Kohen's family and the public still have not been allowed to see the body-camera footage? If the footage supports the state's decision, release it. We will not stop fighting until this family gets the truth."

Crump also noted that a preliminary independent autopsy showed the toddler was shot from the side of the vehicle rather than the front, contradicting police statements that the vehicle was driving directly at the officer. Photography of the car following the incident showed a shattered passenger window and a bullet entry point on the passenger side of the windshield.

Use-of-force experts also questioned the decision to shoot at a moving vehicle. John P. Gross, a police use-of-force researcher, told reporters:

“This shooting was almost certainly unjustified. In terms of both officer safety, the safety of the occupants of the vehicle and general public safety, you don’t shoot vehicles.”

Charles "Joe" Key, a firearms expert and former police lieutenant, added that vehicle damage patterns suggest the officer was positioned to the side:

“That indicates that the officer who did the shooting was not personally at risk at the time he shot. The only way it would have been justified is if officers had been in the path of a car driving directly at them. The body-worn camera’s going to have to tell if anybody was in danger.”

On the other hand, Martin Zummach, an attorney representing Sergeant Foster, maintained that the officer acted appropriately under threat:

"He had no choice but to fire his weapon."

Zummach told reporters that the driver had "tried to kill" his client and other responding officers.

The ruling arrives amid ongoing community protests and heightened racial tensions in Senatobia. Community activist Marquell Bridges emphasized the broader impact on the town's Black residents:

“His family deserves the truth. The public deserves transparency. We will not be silent. We will not look away. And we will not allow the life of a Black child to be treated as though it means nothing.”

The fatal shooting is the latest in a series of controversial law enforcement actions by the Senatobia Police Department:

• Leadership Dismissals: Last month, the city's board of aldermen fired Police Chief Harold Vanderford after reports uncovered private text messages in which he repeatedly used racial slurs. He has since been replaced by Angelica Maze.
• Prior Misconduct Incidents: In 2023, a Senatobia officer arrested a 10-year-old Black child for urinating in public, resulting in a three-month probation sentence that drew national outrage. In a separate incident at the same Walmart parking lot, an officer threatened a Black woman with a Taser and pulled her to the ground during a dispute over an accessible parking spot.

The Attorney General's office has not indicated whether any additional administrative reviews or federal investigations into the department will take place.