SENATOBIA, Miss. — Newly circulated police body-camera footage is renewing scrutiny of a June confrontation outside a Mississippi Walmart in which a police officer fired at a vehicle, killing 1-year-old Kohen Wiley as he sat in his mother’s lap.
The video emerged publicly after Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office announced Monday, October 19, that the officer’s use of deadly force had been deemed justified following a state investigation. The officer will not face state criminal charges stemming from the shooting.
WATCH: Body-camera excerpt from the June 14 response
The 25-second video below shows officers moving from inside the Walmart toward the parking lot on June 14, 2026. It does not show the gunfire that killed Kohen. VOTP News STL is publishing the excerpt with that limitation clearly identified.
What happened outside Walmart
Police responded to a reported shoplifting incident on June 14 involving two women. Kohen was inside a gray sedan with his mother, Vellesiya Wiley, and the driver, Latoya Ferrell.
According to an October 20 joint investigation published by Mississippi Today, Verite News and The New York Times, surveillance and body-camera footage shows the sedan reversing into a parked vehicle as officers approached. The driver then moved forward, with the car appearing to head toward at least one officer before passing between officers. An officer fired into the vehicle.
Kohen was fatally wounded, and Ferrell was injured. The footage made public Tuesday includes views from two responding officers and surveillance cameras, but it does not include the perspective of the officer who fired or show the entire police response.
State concludes officer’s actions were justified
On October 19, Fitch’s office announced it had completed its review, based on an investigation by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, and found the use of force justified. The announcement provided limited detail about the legal analysis supporting that conclusion.
Senatobia police Sgt. Hunter Foster was placed on administrative leave during the investigation. Officials had not publicly identified him as the officer who fired in the reporting reviewed for this story.
Family demands full transparency
The child’s relatives and their attorneys, including civil rights attorney Ben Crump, have questioned the state’s conclusion and continued to demand the complete video record and an explanation of the shooting. Vellesiya Wiley has said she was holding her son and tried to alert officers to his presence.
Kohen’s grandmother told Mississippi Today the family was scheduled to view additional footage on Thursday, October 22. That review had not occurred at the time of this report.
The shooting has sparked protests and calls for accountability in Senatobia, approximately 40 miles south of Memphis. While the state criminal review has concluded, questions remain about the decision to fire into an occupied moving vehicle and what the complete footage will establish.
Video credit: Police body-camera footage dated June 14, 2026; 25-second excerpt circulated by @iamlegacy23 on X. Body-camera and surveillance compilation was first reported as published by Darkhorse Press. Featured image: Still frame from the same body-camera recording. The footage is not original VOTP News STL field coverage.
Sources: Mississippi Today, October 20 reporting and video verification; Mississippi Free Press, October 19 state finding; WTVA/Action News 5, October 19.
