Kohen Kartier Wiley would have turned 2 on Nov. 1, but instead of celebrating his birthday, his family is sitting with grief and anger months after he was shot by a police officer.
“You shot my grandbaby from the side of the car,” his grandmother Veronica Roberson said Thursday as she stood in Senatobia Church of Christ in Senatobia, Mississippi. She described what she saw from the video footage from a Walmart parking lot in Senatobia on June 14. “There’s no justice for this. Somebody gotta help us with this.”
As chants of “Baby Kohen’s life mattered,” echoed through the church, Ben Crump, the family’s attorney, came to the podium.
“Five officers came out with guns drawn over a misdemeanor for shoplifting?” he said, adding that no one was charged. “He was killed over an allegation of shoplifting of diapers?”
Within hours of the Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office saying that it completed the review of the case Monday and “found the use of force was justified,” the family demanded accountability.
By Friday, the Mississippi police officer who shot Kohen resigned, officials said.
The June 14 shooting unfolded when Senatobia officers and Tate County deputies followed Kohen’s mother and her friend to their car. “Officers attempted to stop the vehicle, but the driver drove in the direction of the officers, almost striking one,” the Mississippi Department of Public Safety said in a statement at the time.
“Stop the car!” officers yell, body camera footage released by DPS on Thursday shows. The car continues forward, however, appearing to move toward at least one of the officers before the officer, who’s standing in front of the vehicle toward the passenger’s side, shoots into the car.
The officer who shot into the car is Hunter Foster. He later told another law enforcement official that he couldn’t see a baby was in the car, different bodycam video shows.
Members of Kohen’s family have denied that any shoplifting took place.
Foster’s attorney, Martin Zummach, told CNN in a statement. “The driver of the vehicle was attempting to kill those 5 officers, and Hunter Foster had no choice but to discharge his weapon. We are very sad for the loss of life. But the outcome of the investigation was not only expected, but it was overdue.”
Zummach declined to comment when reached Friday by the Associated Press.
Foster’s resignation comes after he was placed on administrative leave following the shooting. He faced an internal complaint alleging he made a racially offensive remark toward a Black officer two days before Kohen’s death, according to Mississippi Today.
On Sept. 1, the Senatobia Board of Aldermen voted unanimously to fire Police Chief Harold Vanderford after The New York Times reported he repeatedly used racial slurs in text messages.
Days after Kohen’s death, his mother, Vellesiya Wiley, expressed her grief.
“ I watched my baby take his first breath, and I watched my baby take his last breath,” she said eight days after the shooting during a press conference at Gospel Temple Church of God in Christ in Senatobia.
In June, Walmart released a statement to Action 5 News in Memphis, which is about 40 miles from Senatobia.
“We’re saddened by what took place at our Senatobia, MS, store,” the statement reads. “The safety of our associates and customers is a top priority. We’re working with law enforcement as they continue investigating.”
WREG reported that, before the shooting, a witness saw two women exit the store: one carrying a single box of diapers, and one carrying the infant child. Family told WREG that Kohen’s mother was riding in the passenger seat holding the child when the officer shot him and that the aunt, who was driving, was in critical condition. Another witness told the news station that she saw the car driving away with police officers chasing after it on foot just before hearing gunshots.
“Senatobia Police Department get away with too much stuff,” WREG reported Kohen’s great-grandmother Carolyn Stokes, as saying. “I hear about it all the time. It’s in the news all the time. Y’all probably down here all the time, recording this stuff, but it’s just too much.”
This story has been updated.
