AG rules June 14 shooting justified; body-camera footage remains unreleased

Martin Zummach, a lawyer for the officer who fatally shot one-year-old Kohen Wiley, told the Associated Press the driver of the vehicle had “tried to kill” his client. “He had no choice but to fire his weapon,” Zummach said.

Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch ruled on Monday that the use of force in the June 14 incident was “justified.” “In this incident, the Attorney General’s Office found the use of force was justified,” Fitch wrote in a short statement.

Police were called to a Walmart store on June 14 after a report that nappies and baby clothing had been allegedly stolen. According to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, officers arrived to find two women and a child walking toward a car. Officers tried to stop the vehicle but it was allegedly driven at one of them, nearly striking an officer. One officer opened fire, fatally striking Kohen, who was sitting on his mother’s lap in the passenger seat, and critically injuring the driver, Latoya Ferrell.

Kohen’s mother, Vellesiya Wiley, has denied that she or Ferrell were stealing and has said she lifted her son up from her lap to show officers he was there before he was struck by gunfire. Neither Wiley nor Ferrell have been charged with a crime.

Benjamin Crump, a lawyer for the Wiley family, rejected Fitch’s finding and called for the public release of footage from the incident. “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 in a statement. “If the footage supports the state’s decision, release it. We will not stop fighting until this family gets the truth.”

Police have not released any footage from the shooting, including recordings from officer-worn body cameras or CCTV taken from the parking lot.

The shooting, which happened on the Juneteenth US holiday, which recognises the end of slavery in the US, triggered protests in Senatobia. Protesters have alleged that race played a role in the investigation. Kohen and both women are Black; the officer who fired the shots is reportedly white.

Last month, the city fired its white police chief after newspapers unearthed text messages that found him repeatedly using racial slurs.