Mississippi AG Justifies Officer's Shooting of Infant During Shoplifting Stop

A Mississippi town is left shaken after the state attorney general declared a police shooting of an infant was justified. The incident took place outside a Walmart in Senatobia on June 14. One-year-old Kohen Wiley died when Sergeant Hunter Foster fired at his mother's car during what officers called a shoplifting stop.

Vellesiya Wiley, the boy's mother, told reporters that she lifted her son into the air to signal they were innocent moments before the bullets flew. She insists the child was clearly visible in the vehicle. The police department claims the shot was taken because the car started speeding toward them. They say this action was necessary for self-defense.

Republican Attorney General Lynn Fitch's office recently wrapped up its investigation. A statement from the agency simply said, "In this incident, the Attorney General's Office found the use of force was justified." That is all they have released regarding the reasoning behind their conclusion. The Daily Mail has asked for more details but has not received an answer yet.

Ben Crump, the attorney representing the Wiley family, identified Sergeant Foster as the officer involved. He is now demanding immediate access to body-camera footage from that day. "A one-year-old baby was shot and killed by a police officer, and now the state of Mississippi says that use of force was justified," Crump stated in a message to the Daily Mail.

He asked how anyone can accept that verdict when the family and the public still cannot see the video evidence. The core issue remains simple: if the footage backs up the state's decision, then it must be made public. Without that visual record, questions about what really happened will linger far longer than they should.

We will not stop fighting until this family gets the truth," Ben Crump declared with unwavering resolve to secure justice for Kohen Wiley. Attorney General Lynn Fitch has already stated that the police officer's use of force was justified, yet new details challenge that narrative. Two days before the fatal shooting on June 14, Foster faced a separate complaint alleging he made a racially offensive remark. That incident adds another layer of suspicion to an already volatile situation.

The nightmare unfolded outside a Walmart in Senatobia, Tennessee, a small town just forty miles south of Memphis. Officers from the Senatobia Police Department located Vellesiya Wiley carrying her son as she left the store with a friend. They allegedly loaded stolen diapers and baby clothes into a car before driving away. MBI officers attempted to stop the vehicle, but it drove directly toward law enforcement instead. An officer fired into the car, striking Kohen and his mother's friend. The infant took a bullet in his ribcage and died at a local hospital.

Wiley has released videos denying any theft or intent to flee. She claims she raised her baby high to show officers he was safe inside the vehicle. Crump presented autopsy results indicating Kohen was shot from the side, not the front as officers claimed. This discrepancy contradicts their assertion that the car was charging at them. The family remains devastated by the loss of their child.

This tragedy marks the latest chapter in growing tensions between the Senatobia Police Department and the city's black residents. Last year, an officer threatened a black woman with a Taser during a confrontation over parking near the same Walmart lot. Two years earlier, another police officer was fired for arresting a ten-year-old boy simply for urinating in public. These incidents paint a disturbing picture of systemic issues within the department.