Hundreds of people protested on June 16 outside of a Walmart in Senatobia, Mississippi, following a police officer-involved fatal shooting of one-year-old Kohen Wiley. Residents are demanding accountability and the immediate release of the body-camera footage from the June 14 incident to understand what happened.
According to a news release, civil rights and personal injury attorney Ben Crump and Attorney Van Turner of Turner Feild, PLLC have been retained by the child’s family.
“A one-year-old child is dead because police officers in Mississippi opened fire on a car in a crowded Walmart parking lot. Kohen Wiley was a baby. 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,” said Atty. Crump in a press statement.
According to WAPT News, the Senatobia Police Department officer, whose name has not yet been released, has been placed on administrative leave. The Senatobia Board of Aldermen made the announcement during a meeting on June 16 as demonstrators marched through downtown Senatobia to the parking lot where the shooting occurred.
Senatobia is in northwestern Mississippi, about 35 miles south of Memphis, Tennessee. Senatobia is the county seat of Tate County, with a population of about 8,500. According to 2020 Census statistics, Senatobia’s population is 53.7% White and 40.3% Black.
“I’m just at a loss for words, to be honest. Somebody needs to be held accountable for it,” said Carlos Haynes, Kohen’s grandfather, according to WREG TV. He described his grandson as a happy baby and said he was looking forward to watching him grow. “Someone ended it all before it could even start,” said Mr. Haynes.
Demonstrators gathered outside the store after a rally at Senatobia City Hall on June 16.
WAPT reported that law enforcement deployed tear gas to disperse protesters.
“Transparency is not optional when a child has lost his life. Every day that passes without the release of this footage deepens public distrust and prolongs the pain of a family searching for truth,” posted Indivisible Memphis online.
The grassroots coalition called on people to email or call Senatobia elected officials and demand full transparency throughout the investigation, accountability for everyone involved, and justice for Kohen and his family.
According to law enforcement claims, officers responded to a shoplifting call at Walmart on U.S. 51, at around 2:00 p.m. in the afternoon, and “encountered two subjects and a juvenile child fleeing from the store into a vehicle. Officers attempted to stop the vehicle, but the driver drove in the direction of the officers, almost striking one.
An officer then discharged their weapon and the vehicle fled the scene. The subjects arrived at a local hospital where one juvenile child in the vehicle was pronounced deceased, and another subject had critical injuries. No law enforcement officers received any serious physical injury.”
The shooting reportedly involved officers with the Senatobia Police Department and deputies with the Tate County Sheriff’s Office, noted ABC-24, a local Memphis affiliate. According to reports by the Mississippi Free Press, members of Kohen Wiley’s family have denied that any shoplifting took place.
In a video posted June 17 by ABC-24, Vellesiya Wiley, Kohen’s mother, said she, her son, and a friend were leaving the store. “As we was leaving out the Walmart, they tried to stop her (the friend), but I kept walking because it had nothing to do with me. By the time me and my baby got in the car she came.”
She added, “I raised my baby up because they were drawing their guns. She has no tint (on the windows). I raised my baby up trying to show them that he was in the car and she was backing up and she hit a car as I was opening the door.
So, the door flew back. By the time I set my baby down there was like three to four shots. One of the shots hit him in his ribcage and the other shots hit her in her arm and her thigh. And we left and went to Senatobia Hospital, where he was pronounced dead,” she said of her son.
Patrick “Lumumba” Alexander of the Black Liberation Movement argued that Senatobia Police Department officers didn’t just see a woman and child—they saw a Black woman and Black child, which in his opinion, is why they fired multiple times on the vehicle.
Photos circulating across various news outlets and social media show a bullet hole on the passenger side of the windshield of the grey sedan, and the front passenger window is shattered. There were also some photos that appeared to show multiple bullet holes.
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation said it is gathering evidence and will share findings with the Attorney General’s Office once the investigation is complete. According to the Department of Public Safety, officers witnessed the baby’s presence before the individuals entered the vehicle and before the officer fired into the sedan.
One witness told WREG TV’s, “Then I hear gunshots and I’m like, ‘I know they’re not shooting at a car that’s leaving—this is Walmart.’” A separate witness said he heard two gunshots and that law enforcement was already waiting in the parking lot as two women exited with one box of diapers, one holding baby Kohen.
“Senatobia Police Department get away with too much stuff,” said Carolyn Stokes, Kohen’s great-grandmother, according to WREG TV. “It’s just too much.”
ABC 24 reported that Mississippi Department of Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell said an independent investigation would be ongoing and that police footage would be made available once it was completed. He called on the public to maintain patience, acknowledging, “I know this is a very frustrating time.”
Brother Abdul Shahid Muhammad, Student Coordinator for the Nation of Islam’s Study Group in Holly Springs, Mississippi, questioned how a shoplifting call escalates to deadly force. He is also a 32-year law enforcement veteran. Shoplifting is a simple misdemeanor, he explained. So, something very serious would have to occur to justify deadly force, he pointed out.
“You know a child is in the car. You saw that. And, you mean to tell me that they fired at the car anyway?! It’s very tragic, but unfortunately, it’s quite commonplace, particularly down in the Delta,” he said, referring to some southern states. There has always been in Mississippi an indifference where the lives of Black people are concerned, Student Coordinator Shahid Muhammad noted.
Longtime Mississippi community organizer Marquell Bridges described swift, disciplined action following the shooting. “We shut down Walmart for the day, which shows real Black power by the community coming together and saying you won’t just go on as business as usual as you kill a one-year-old Black baby, Kohen Kartier Wiley,” he told The Final Call.
He demanded that the officer be “fired, charged, arrested, indicted, and convicted,” and called for the police chief to resign.
Attorney Turner said the family has many questions. “We want to see the body cam footage from the officers,” Atty, Turner said, reported ABC-24. “We also want to see the footage from Walmart, and the family is just wondering why the officer dispatched his service gun, knowing that there was a child in the car.”
—Charlene Muhammad, National Correspondent