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Mississippi attorney general rules fatal police shooting of one-year-old as ‘justified’
The Guardian • • nation
Key Points:
- The Mississippi attorney general’s office declared the police shooting of one-year-old Kohen Wiley in Senatobia as justified, four months after the incident occurred during a response to a shoplifting call.
- On June 14, officers confronted Wiley’s mother and a friend after an alleged diaper theft; no charges were filed against the women, and no evidence of shoplifting has been released.
- Sgt. Hunter Foster, a white officer, fired into the vehicle as the women and child attempted to leave, killing Wiley and wounding Ferrell; conflicting accounts exist about whether the vehicle threatened officers.
- Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, representing the family, highlighted discrepancies in official reports and criticized the withholding of body camera footage, calling for transparency and completion of the investigation.
- The shooting adds to a pattern of controversial incidents involving Senatobia police, a city with a 40% Black population, including the recent firing of the police chief for racial slurs and prior incidents involving racial tensions.
