Bodycam footage released in Mississippi police shooting that killed 1-year-old boy

Mississippi authorities have released body camera footage from a June police shooting in Senatobia that killed one-year-old Kohen Wiley, who was in a moving car with his mother during a response to a shoplifting report at a Walmart parking lot. The video shows the moments before an officer fired into the vehicle, while state officials and the family disagree sharply over whether the shooting was justified.

What the video shows

According to the released footage, officers were told that suspected shoplifters were leaving when five law enforcement officers ran toward the car with guns drawn. The vehicle then reversed, hit a parked car, and moved forward again.

The officer wearing the body camera can be seen aiming his weapon at the car while moving closer and shouting for it to stop. As the vehicle passed near him, he fired, breaking the passenger-side window. Four gunshots can be heard, and the car continues slowly out of the parking lot.

CCTV footage from the storefront appears to show another officer standing near the front of the moving vehicle at the moment the shot was fired.

The shooting and the people involved

Kohen Wiley was one year old and was riding on his mother’s lap when the shooting happened on 14 June in Senatobia. He was in the car with his mother, Vellesiya Wiley, and another woman.

The officer who fired, Hunter Foster, has since resigned, according to Senatobia Mayor Greg Graves, who confirmed that detail to the BBC’s U.S. partner CBS. The Senatobia Police Department did not immediately respond to the BBC’s request for confirmation.

• Location: Senatobia, Mississippi
• Date: 14 June
• Victim: Kohen Wiley, age 1
• Officer who fired: Hunter Foster
• Issue at the center of the case: a shoplifting report at a Walmart parking lot

Conflicting accounts of what happened

The Mississippi attorney general found the officer’s use of force justified, according to the report. Foster’s lawyer, Martin Zummach, told the BBC that the driver was trying to kill the officers and said his client had no choice but to fire his weapon.

The child’s family disputes that account. Their attorney, Ben Crump, called the police response excessive from the beginning and argued that a shoplifting allegation does not justify the death of a child.

Vellesiya Wiley has denied that she and her friend stole nappies from the store. No charges have been filed against either woman in connection with the allegation.

Why the case matters

The shooting has led to protests and vigils in Mississippi, and relatives have continued to call for accountability. At a news conference, Kohen Wiley’s grandmother, LaSandra Williams, said she was struggling to understand how the shooting could be described as justified.

The newly released footage is likely to remain important for ordinary readers because it offers a clearer public record of a deadly police encounter involving a child, while leaving the central questions in dispute: what the officers believed was happening, whether the driver posed a deadly threat, and whether the force used was necessary.

Source: Kayla Epstein