The child’s family says body-camera footage is essential to evaluating the state’s conclusion that an officer’s use of force was justified.
JACKSON, Miss. — A Mississippi finding that a Senatobia police officer was justified in the shooting that killed 1-year-old Kohen Wiley has shifted attention to evidence the public has not seen, as the child’s family renews demands for body-camera footage and questions whether the vehicle involved posed an immediate threat.
Mississippi’s attorney general concluded after a state investigation that the officer’s use of force was justified during the June 14 encounter outside a Walmart. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation has said the officer fired after a car carrying Kohen, his mother and another woman moved toward police and nearly struck an officer. Kohen was killed, and the woman driving the vehicle was seriously wounded. The family disputes that description of the car’s movement.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents Kohen’s family, said the state should release body-camera footage if it supports the attorney general’s conclusion. The family has also sought dashboard-camera recordings and Walmart surveillance video. Authorities had not publicly released the body-camera footage when the finding was announced, leaving the public unable to independently compare the recorded encounter with the competing descriptions offered by investigators and the family.
The disagreement centers largely on where the vehicle was headed when the officer fired. Investigators said the driver moved in the direction of officers and almost struck one. Vellesiya Wiley, Kohen’s mother, has said her friend was driving away. The distinction is important because the state’s justification rests on the danger officers were believed to face at the moment force was used.
A preliminary independent autopsy requested by Kohen’s family added another disputed element. Crump said the examination suggested the child was shot from the side of the vehicle rather than from the front. He has argued that the trajectory raises questions about the official description of the car moving toward officers. Crump also acknowledged that the pathologist who conducted the preliminary examination did not have access to the complete investigative record.
Police-use-of-force specialists interviewed by The Associated Press also raised questions about the encounter. John P. Gross, an expert on police use of force involving moving vehicles, said officers generally should move out of a vehicle’s path when possible instead of firing at it. Charles “Joe” Key, a former Baltimore police lieutenant and firearms and ballistics expert, said images showing damage to the vehicle could be consistent with the officer firing from its side. Both indicated that video showing the positions of the vehicle and officers would be important in assessing what happened.
The encounter began with a shoplifting report at the Senatobia Walmart. Police believed diapers and baby clothing had been stolen. Officers encountered Wiley, who was carrying Kohen, and a friend as they left the store and entered a car. Wiley has denied that either woman stole anything. Online state and county court records reviewed by The Associated Press showed no shoplifting or other charges had been filed against them in connection with the incident.
Kohen’s death intensified longstanding tensions between the police department and some Black residents in Senatobia, a city of more than 8,000 people. Residents and civil rights advocates held demonstrations after the shooting and called for greater transparency. The department had already faced criticism over earlier encounters involving Black residents, including the arrest of a 10-year-old boy in 2023 after he urinated in public and a later confrontation involving a Black woman in the same Walmart parking lot.
The scrutiny widened again when the city fired Police Chief Harold Vanderford after news organizations reported allegations that he used racist slurs in private text messages. Vanderford had submitted his resignation, but the board of aldermen instead voted unanimously to fire him. City officials did not say the decision was directly caused by the shooting of Kohen, though it came as the department was already facing intense public criticism.
The attorney general’s finding means the officer will not face criminal liability from the state investigation based on the evidence reviewed by the office. For Kohen’s family, however, the central unanswered issue remains public access to the recordings of the encounter. Their attorneys say they will continue pressing for the footage as they challenge the official account of how the shooting unfolded.
Author note: Last updated October 20, 2026.