An incident in Mississippi on June 14 involving a police officer’s role in the fatal shooting of one-year-old Kohen Wiley has since sparked protests outside a Walmart in Senatobia. Civil rights groups in the area have also joined the calls for justice, demanding answers from the Senatobia Police Department.
According to a report by Newsweek, the officer at the center of the incident has been placed on administrative leave. While authorities have not publicly identified the officer, more information about what allegedly happened in the Walmart parking lot has since emerged.
In its official account of the incident, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (MBI) stated that investigators are still gathering evidence. However, the agency confirmed that law enforcement officers were responding to a shoplifting call at the Walmart.
According to the statement, officers arrived and encountered two individuals attempting to leave the scene in a vehicle. The car reportedly also had a child in the back seat. The MBI says the vehicle nearly struck officers, prompting one officer to fire at it. The vehicle then left the scene and drove directly to a nearby hospital, where the child was pronounced dead. Hospital staff also found the friend of Wiley’s mother suffering from serious injuries.
Marquell Bridges, president and founder of the advocacy group Building Bridges Coalition, has been among the leading voices representing Wiley’s family. Bridges also confirmed that Wiley’s mother was not physically injured during the incident.
But that is where the good news ended. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who has taken up Wiley’s case, said, “A one-year-old child is dead after police officers in Mississippi opened fire on a vehicle in a crowded Walmart parking lot in Senatobia.” He continued, “His mother, who has not been charged with any crime, says she was trying to communicate to officers that there was a baby in the car. They fired anyway, leading to the death of an innocent one-year-old. We intend to seek justice for baby Kohen and the life that was stolen from him.”
Wiley’s family is questioning whether the use of force was excessive. Another request they are making is for authorities to release body-camera footage so the facts can be evaluated through evidence rather than competing accounts of what happened. Wiley’s grandmother, Licole Wiley, told Action News 5, “A policeman shot, opened fire in a public setting over allegedly some Pampers.” She continued, “Whatever the incident may have come to, it still didn’t require you to shoot two adults and a baby that was not even a threat to you.”
Bridges took to Facebook to demand not only the release of body-camera footage, but also dashcam footage, Walmart surveillance footage, and even the original 911 call. Bridges wrote, “Kohen’s mother did not steal anything and was not a witness to or accomplice to any crime. She was skipping and playing with her child Kohen on the way to the car moments earlier, not fleeing a theft.”
As of Tuesday night, members of the public were still protesting in the Walmart parking lot, urging authorities to provide answers. Law enforcement reportedly deployed tear gas in an attempt to disperse the crowd.
