Released video fuels dispute over Mississippi police shooting that killed one-year-old

Mississippi authorities have released body-camera footage showing the June shooting of one-year-old Kohen Wiley by Senatobia police Sergeant Hunter Foster. The state attorney general’s office said this week that a month-long investigation found Foster’s use of force appropriate, but Kohen’s family and its lawyers dispute that conclusion. The shooting occurred on June 14 in a Walmart car park in Senatobia, about 65 kilometres south of Memphis, Tennessee.

Police had responded to a shoplifting call. Kohen’s mother, Vellesiya Wiley, and a friend ran to a vehicle while Kohen was being held by his mother, according to the footage described by the South China Morning Post. Five officers approached the parked car with guns drawn.

The vehicle reversed, struck another parked car and then accelerated forward as Foster moved toward it with his weapon drawn. The footage shows the wheels turning away from him as he appears to place his hands on the bonnet and jump clear. Foster fired, shattering the front passenger-side window.

Kohen was seated on his mother’s lap in that part of the vehicle. The car then drove away before the footage ended. The family’s lawyers say the fatal shot came from the side of the vehicle, rather than while Foster was directly in front of it.

Foster’s lawyer, Martin Zummach, says the officer had no choice. He argues that the car was moving toward Foster and another officer and that the footage vindicates his client. The family’s civil-rights lawyer, Ben Crump, argues that Foster was not in danger when he fired and that the officers’ decision to run toward the vehicle with guns drawn was excessive and reckless.

The driver, who was identified in the report as Wiley’s friend, has not been charged. Wiley has denied that she and her friend stole diapers, and the report says neither woman has been charged in the matter. The state’s investigation nevertheless concluded that Foster’s use of force was justified.

The footage has not resolved the central dispute. Charles “Joe” Key, a former Baltimore police lieutenant who reviewed it for the Associated Press, said the vehicle appeared to be used as a deadly weapon and that Foster made a split-second decision while it moved toward him. John P.

Gross, a police-use-of-force expert, said Foster should not have placed himself where the car could strike him. An independent autopsy commissioned by the family reached the same conclusion as Crump’s team about the direction of the fatal shot, according to the report. Crump has called for a federal investigation, saying the state’s decision sends a message that Kohen’s life was not valued.

Kohen would have turned two in early November. His maternal grandmother, Veronica Roberson, said the word “justified” had haunted her and criticized the attorney general’s office for not notifying the family before the decision became public. She also objected to footage being leaked online before the official release.

The Mississippi Department of Public Safety released video from several officers, while Darkhorse Press published portions a day earlier. The competing interpretations of the encounter, including those from two outside experts, leave the legal and public dispute unresolved despite the state’s decision not to pursue criminal wrongdoing against Foster.