A Miss. Mother Told Cops Her 1-Year-Old Was in the Car. They Fired Anyway, Killing Him
Officers from the Senatobia Police Department and the Tate County Sheriff’s Department were responding to a shoplifting call at Walmart on Sunday (June 14), where they encountered two adults and a child getting into a car. Moments later, the unthinkable happened—leaving a Mississippi family shattered, a mother consumed by grief and a furious demand for answers.
Kohen Kartier Wiley, 1, was in a vehicle with his mother and a family friend in the superstore’s parking lot on Highway 51 in Senatobia—about 35 miles south of Memphis, NBC News reported.
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (MBI), which is leading the probe into the shooting, stated that officers attempted to stop the vehicle shortly after 2 p.m. According to investigators, the driver then accelerated toward the officers, nearly striking one of them. That’s when an officer discharged their weapon.
“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,” civil rights attorney Ben Crump said in a statement. “They fired anyway.”
After the vehicle fled the scene, the occupants arrived at a local hospital, where baby Kohen was pronounced dead, according to the MBI. His mother was physically unharmed, but her friend was seriously injured, according to Marquell Bridges, the founder of advocacy group, Building Bridges Coalition.
“Policeman shot, opened fire in a public setting, over allegedly some Pampers,” Licole Wiley, Wiley’s grandmother told Action News 5. “Whatever the incident may have come to, it still didn’t need for you to shoot two adults and a baby that was not even a threat to you.”
The outcry for justice intensified on Tuesday night as hundreds of protesters marched across Senatobia. Earlier that evening, a massive crowd descended on Senatobia City Hall, as reported by Action News 5, demanding accountability for the stolen life of baby Kohen.
“Today it’s in their community, tomorrow it’s in mine, tomorrow it might be on my doorstep,” Aretha Lester said. “I have a child. I have grandchildren, too.”
Police deployed tear gas on protestors outside the Senatobia Walmart. Sean Tindell, Commissioner of the Department of Public Safety, acknowledged the public’s frustration, but urged protestors to “keep civility during this process so that we can get to the bottom of it.”
While a mother is left to mourn her son, the officer who pulled the trigger has been quietly placed on administrative leave, according to Newsweek, as is standard protocol following officer-involved shootings.
Now, Kohen’s family is questioning the use of lethal force and demanding that authorities release body camera and surveillance footage. However, Tindell stated that the video will not be made public until the state completes its investigation and presents the evidence to the attorney general’s office for potential criminal charges.
“Someone ended it all before it could even start,” Kohen’s grandfather, Carlos Haynes, said about the late toddler, according to the Associated Press. He described his grandson as a happy baby whom he was looking forward to watching grow.
