Mississippi AG Finds Officer’s Use of Force Justified in Shooting That Killed 1-Year-Old

The Mississippi attorney general’s office said Monday that a Senatobia police officer’s use of force was justified in the June 14 shooting that killed 1-year-old Kohen Wiley in a Walmart parking lot.

The decision followed an investigation by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation. Officers had responded to a reported shoplifting involving Kohen’s mother, Vellesiya Wiley, and Latoya Ferrell, who left the store with the child and entered a vehicle. An officer fired into the vehicle as it began leaving the parking lot, killing Kohen as he sat in his mother’s lap and wounding Ferrell.

The Bureau of Investigation said shortly after the shooting that the driver moved toward officers and nearly struck one. Wiley denied that she or Ferrell stole anything and disputed the account that the vehicle was driven toward police. Neither woman has been charged, according to the Mississippi Free Press.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents Kohen’s family, has said a preliminary independent autopsy indicated that the child was shot from the side of the vehicle rather than the front, which he said contradicted the official account.

The Mississippi Department of Public Safety had not released body-camera or Walmart surveillance footage as of Monday, the Mississippi Free Press reported. A department spokesperson told the outlet that footage would soon be provided to media organizations through public-records requests.