Family of 1-Year-Old Mississippi Boy Says Police Killing Was Not Justified After Watching Bodycam Video Showing Reckless Officer Actions

The family of Kohen Wiley, a 1-year-old boy who was fatally shot by a Mississippi police officer outside a Walmart in June, said the recently released body camera footage shows there was no justification for the officer’s actions.

Kohen’s family viewed the footage before the Mississippi Department of Public Safety made it public on Thursday, October 22, just days after the state cleared the officer of criminal wrongdoing.

Kohen was shot and killed by Senatobia police Sgt. Hunter Foster after officers responded to a reported shoplifting incident at a Walmart in Senatobia, about 40 miles south of Memphis, Tenn., on Sunday, June 14.

The video shows Kohen being held by his mother, Vellesiya Wiley, as she runs through the Walmart parking lot with a friend, and they both get into a vehicle as five officers approach them with their weapons drawn.

The car backs into another parked vehicle and then begins to accelerate forward as Foster steps in front of it with his gun drawn. He appears to put his hands on the hood of the vehicle as he jumps out of the way and fires, shattering the front passenger window where Kohen was seated on his mother’s lap. Vellesiya has denied that she and her friend stole diapers from the store, and neither woman has been charged.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents Kohen’s family, said the officers’ actions were “excessive” and reckless, and he argued that Foster wasn’t in danger when he fired the shot that killed Kohen.

“Diapers are something a mother needs for a child. Diapers should never cost a baby their life,” Crump said at a news conference on Thursday.

Kohen’s maternal grandmother, Veronica Roberson, learned from news reports that the officer was cleared, and she later viewed parts of the video after it was leaked online on Wednesday, October 21. She described the leak and the attorney general’s office's lack of notice as a “slap in the face” to her family.

“The word ‘justified’ has haunted me,” Roberson said. “There’s no justification for that.” Kohen would have celebrated his second birthday in early November, and the family’s legal team has called for a federal investigation.

The Mississippi Attorney General’s office said its months-long review found Foster's use of force justified. Foster’s attorney, Martin Zummach, has said his client had “no choice” but to shoot because the vehicle was about to strike him, and that the video shows Foster was in danger.

“She came right at Hunter Foster and the other officer and he had to shoot his weapon,” Zummach said, adding that it was “strictly muscle memory” that caused Foster to keep firing after the first shot. Vellesiya has disputed that her friend, who was driving, headed toward the officers.

John P. Gross, an authority on police use of force against moving vehicles, said Foster “should never have placed himself in a position where he could have been struck,” and that a shoplifting accusation didn’t justify deadly force.

In contrast, Charles “Joe” Key, a retired Baltimore police lieutenant, said the shooting “was objectively reasonable” because Foster had nearly been run over, according to a report.

Foster resigned from the Senatobia Police Department on Friday, October 23, just days after the state’s decision. The city’s police chief was also recently fired for allegedly using racial slurs.