After AG Said Police Shooting That Killed Boy, 1, Was ‘Justified,’ Lawyer Says Evidence Tells a Different Story

Kohen WileyCredit: GoFundMe

1-year-old Kohen Wiley was fatally shot in a Walmart parking lot when police fired at the car while responding to an alleged shoplifting call

The family reviewed police bodycam footage after learning of the attorney general’s decision that the shooting was justified through news reports

Their attorney argues the footage supports an independent autopsy finding that the fatal shot came from the vehicle’s side and “was not justified”

The family of a 1-year-old boy killed in Mississippi when a police officer shot into a moving vehicle in a Walmart parking lot while responding to an alleged shoplifting call said they do not believe the shooting was justified after reviewing bodycam footage from officers at the scene.

Kohen Wiley’s relatives and their attorneys reviewed the footage on Thursday, Oct. 22, which included video from the camera worn by Hunter Foster, the Senatobia police officer who shot and killed the child on June 14.

Foster had responded to the scene and was chasing two women accused of stealing diapers and baby clothes, per authorities.

At a news conference Thursday, civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the family, said the development comes at a particularly difficult time for the family because Kohen would have turned 2 on Nov. 1.

On Monday, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch announced her office had completed its review into the shooting and “found the use of force was justified.”

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation conducted the investigation. Fitch did not indicate how investigators arrived at their conclusion.

Foster and other responding officers had encountered two people with a child fleeing from the store into a vehicle, the Mississippi Department of Public Safety said in June. The agency said officers had tried to stop the vehicle, “but the driver drove in the direction of the officers, almost striking one,” which led to the gunfire.

Kohen’s killing set off weeks of protests and spurred calls for accountability and transparency.

At the news conference, Marquell Bridges, a local activist and president of Building Bridges Coalition, said Kohen’s family found out through social media about the state attorney general’s decision not to bring charges against the officer who fatally shot the boy.

Kohen’s maternal grandmother, Veronica Roberson, said she learned of the decision through the news and that she had seen clips of footage from the scene that were leaked online.

“The word justified has haunted me since Monday,” she said.

Kohen’s mother, Vellesiya Wiley, was holding her son when the officer shot him. She has denied taking anything from the store and neither she nor her friend, who was driving that day and was also injured, have been charged.

“Diapers are something a mother needs for a child. Diapers should never cost a baby their life,” Crump said. “This decision sends a message that a Black baby boy, his life, is not as valuable as the white diapers that he is wrapped in.”

Crump said the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation told the family that three shots were fired. In July, Crump said the findings of an independent autopsy commissioned by Kohen’s family indicated the fatal shot came from the side of the car, not the front. Crump said Thursday that the bodycam video showed the same.

“We continue to stand on the fact that the shot from the side of the vehicle was not justified,” Crump said, adding that he does not believe Foster was in imminent danger.

Source: Crime