Kohen Wiley was one-year old. He is not going to be two years old. A policeman in Senatobia, Mississippi shot him to death back in June. The government of that benighted province says the policeman was right to do so. Kohen Wiley was Black. The policeman who shot him to death is not. Neither is the attorney general who Monday said the policeman was right to do so. And the whole thing was over a bag of diapers. And that is why Kohen Wiley is not going to be two years old. From the Mississippi Free Press:
“Today, the Office of the Attorney General announced it has completed the review of a June 14, 2026 incident in Senatobia involving one officer with the Senatobia Police Department,” the Republican attorney general’s statement said. “In this incident, the Attorney General’s Office found the use of force was justified. Pursuant to Section 45-1-6 of the Mississippi Code, the review followed an investigation by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation.”
Officers were responding to a shoplifting call alleging that Wiley’s mother, Vellesiya Wiley, and Latoya Ferrell had stolen a pack of diapers. The women exited the store with the child as officers arrived, entered their vehicle and began to leave the parking lot. Officers drew their weapons, and Vellesiya Wiley lifted her son up to show the officers that a child was in the car. One officer fired into the vehicle, killing the baby as she held him. A bullet also wounded Ferrell.
Gravely, one might add.
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which investigated the shooting, alleged on the day of the shooting that “the driver drove in the direction of the officers, almost striking one.” As of press time, the Mississippi Department of Public Safety has released none of the video surveillance of the shooting of Kohen Wiley, neither the body-cam footage nor the overhead video from the Walmart parking lot where Wiley was shot. A short clip from a bystander was posted on the internet shortly after the shooting, showing neither the shots being fired nor the car driving towards officers. Neither woman has been charged with a crime, and officials have not released any evidence of shoplifting. Wiley and both women are Black; the officer identified as the subject of the investigation, Hunter Foster, is white.
If anything in the preceding paragraph comes as a surprise to you, you have been in a medically induced coma for at least the last 20 years. It certainly comes as no surprise to the black citizens of Senatobia. From The Guardian:
The shooting was just the most recent in a series of incidents involving Senatobia’s police force. The town is about 40 percent Black. In September, Senatobia fired its police chief, who reportedly used racial slurs. And in 2023, the town made national news after an officer arrested and placed in a cell a 10-year-old Black boy who had urinated in public. That child was later sentenced to three months’ probation. Last year, the town’s aldermen voted to replace the police chief who was serving at the time of the 10-year-old’s arrest with Harold Vanderford, who served when Wiley was killed. He has been replaced with Angelica Maze, who is Black.
The available facts stink to high heaven. First of all, doesn't the typical Walmart have about 30 blue-shirted security people on hand? Why call the cops on a one-item shoplifting beef? Driving in a Threatening Manner is, of course, the all-purpose excuse for police shootings these days, although this one requires a further explanation about how, if the car were being driven toward Officer Foster, Kohen Wiley was shot in the side. One is also curious why neither his mother nor her friend have been charged with shoplifting yet, that being the alleged crime that kicked everything off. The hide-and-seek with the body cams is also standard procedure these days and is to be respected. Of course, if they went to trial on the shoplifting beef, they might have no choice but to produce them, which may explain why nobody has been charged.
The Mississippi bureau of investigation, which investigated the shooting, alleged that the driver “drove in the direction of the officers, almost striking one.” But the civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the family, released an independent autopsy that indicated Wiley was shot from the side of the car, not the front, which contradicted officers’ statements that Ferrell headed towards them.
“ I watched my baby take his first breath, and I watched my baby take his last breath,” Kohen’s mother said during a press conference after the shooting.
Kohen Wiley never will be two years old.