A lawyer representing the family of Kohen Wiley, a 1-year-old boy killed when a police officer fired into a vehicle while responding to a shoplifting call, has called for the release of body-worn camera footage after Mississippi’s attorney general said the shooting was justified.
In a brief statement on Monday, Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office said it had completed a review of the June 14 shooting and would not bring criminal charges against the Senatobia police officer involved in the shooting.
“In this incident, the Attorney General’s Office found the use of force was justified,” the statement said.
The conclusion of the state’s review comes months after Kohen’s shooting death prompted protests and calls for justice in the town of Senatobia. It was the latest in a string of incidents involving police officers and Black residents that outraged the Senatobia community.
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Ben Crump, a prominent civil rights attorney who is representing Kohen’s family, said that authorities have still not released video footage of the encounter to support the attorney general’s finding that the shooting was justified.
“How can anyone accept that conclusion when Kohen’s family and the public still have not been allowed to see the body-camera footage?” Crump said on X.
“This is a department whose chief was fired after reports of racial slurs in his text messages, and whose officer faced a complaint alleging a racially offensive remark two days before he shot Kohen.”
Last month, Senatobia Police Chief Harold Vanderford, who is white, was fired after news outlets reported that he had repeatedly used racial slurs in text messages dating to last summer.
Crump added: “If the footage supports the state’s decision, release it. We will not stop fighting until this family gets the truth.”
Crump previously said that the results of an independent autopsy indicated the shot that killed Kohen was fired from the vehicle’s passenger-side window, contradicting officers’ claims that the car was moving toward them.
Martin Zummach, an attorney who represents the officer who fired the shot that killed Kohen, told the Associated Press that the attorney general’s findings cleared his client of criminal wrongdoing. He said the driver of the vehicle had “tried to kill” his client and other officers who were present.
“He had no choice but to fire his weapon,” Zummach said.
Newsweek has contacted Crump and Zummach for comment via email.
What Happened
The shooting occurred on June 14 as Senatobia officers responded to a shoplifting call at a Walmart, where they saw Kohen’s mother, Vellesiya Wiley, carrying her son as she left the store with a friend, got into a car and began driving away. Wiley and her friend are Black.
Police believed they had stolen diapers and baby clothes, but Kohen’s mother denied she or her friend stole anything. Neither has been charged.
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (MBI) said in a statement shortly after the shooting that officers had “attempted to stop the vehicle, but the driver drove in the direction of the officers, almost striking one.”
The statement said that an officer “then discharged their weapon and the vehicle fled the scene.”
Wiley said she was leaving the Walmart with her son and her friend when her friend was stopped by police.
"I kept walking because it had nothing to do with me," she said in a video posted on X.
Wiley said her friend then got into the vehicle, but as her friend began to reverse the vehicle, she lifted up her son “trying to show them that he was in the car” because police officers drew their guns.
"By the time I sat my baby back down, it was like three or four shots. One of the shots hit him in his rib cage," she said.
Other shots hit her friend in the arm and thigh, she said.
When Will Body Camera Footage Be Released?
No footage from the shooting has been released, including body-worn camera footage or any CCTV footage from the parking lot where it occurred.
Authorities previously said that the body camera footage would not be released until after the MBI’s investigation is complete. Mississippi Department of Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell said body camera footage and other evidence would not be released until after the state investigation is complete and the evidence was presented to the Attorney General’s Office for possible criminal charges.
Alex Gilbert, a spokesperson for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety (MDPS), told Newsweek on Tuesday that requests for the body-worn camera footage can be submitted through a records request and will be reviewed.
“While this investigation remains open and active, MDPS’ policy has been to release the incident report and any related body cam footage at the conclusion of a critical incident investigation,” he said.
“Any requests for the investigative report, body-worn camera footage or other related video recordings should be submitted through the public records request process and will be reviewed in accordance with applicable law.”
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: John Fitzpatrick and Dave Siminoff.