Foster remains certified after resigning from Senatobia police force

Wiley family’s attorneys dispute Foster’s account and seek a federal investigation

Mississippi Department of Public Safety spokesperson Alex Gibert said Friday that Sgt. Hunter Foster remained certified as a police officer after resigning from the police department in Senatobia following the fatal shooting of 1-year-old Kohen Wiley. Kohen Wiley’s family legal team called for Foster’s decertification and for the federal government to investigate the shooting. Ben Crump said released footage showed the fatal shot came from the side of the vehicle, while an independent autopsy commissioned by the family reached the same conclusion.

Foster, 33, resigned Friday after the June 14 shooting of Kohen Wiley in a Walmart parking lot in Senatobia, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) south of Memphis, Tennessee. On Thursday, the state released videos of the fatal shooting, including Foster’s body-worn camera footage of the encounter. Earlier in the week, the Mississippi Attorney General’s office cleared Foster of criminal wrongdoing after a monthslong investigation concluded that his use of force was justified. Senatobia Mayor Greg Graves confirmed the resignation Friday.

Foster’s attorney, Martin Zummach, declined to comment when reached Friday. Zummach has said Foster had ‘no choice’ but to fire his weapon at the vehicle because it was moving at him. Kohen’s mother, Vellesiya Wiley, disputed that her friend, who was driving, headed toward the officers.

Crump, an attorney for Kohen’s family, said the footage showed the fatal shot came from the side of the car, disputing that Foster faced imminent danger. The independent autopsy commissioned by the family reached the same conclusion, and an image of the vehicle showed its shattered right front passenger window.

Crump said in a statement, “Officer Foster’s resignation is hardly a step toward accountability, and it is certainly not justice.” He also said, “Turning in a badge does not erase responsibility for taking a life, and it will not end our fight for justice for Kohen and his family.” Kohen would have celebrated his second birthday in early November.

Accounts of why officers were at Walmart differed. The Associated Press described the response as involving a shoplifting call, while the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation report said the group of officers was at the store in response to an unrelated incident. A Walmart employee then alerted the officers that two women were running from the store. Vellesiya Wiley denied that she and her friend stole diapers from the store, and state and county court records showed they were not charged.

The videos show Vellesiya Wiley holding Kohen as she and her friend ran across the parking lot and entered their vehicle. Five officers approached the parked car with guns drawn. The car reversed away and crashed into a nearby parked vehicle as officers yelled for it to stop. The vehicle then accelerated forward as Foster stepped toward it, directly in front, with his gun drawn. The wheels turned away from him, and he appears to put his hands on the hood as he jumps out of the way. Foster fired, shattering the window of the front passenger side, where Kohen was seated on his mother’s lap, and the car continued to drive away.

Foster had worked for two other Mississippi agencies since becoming certified as a law enforcement officer there in 2019. He worked for the police department in Southaven for two years and then was employed with the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Office until October 2024. About five months later, he was hired by the police department in Senatobia, according to state records obtained by The Associated Press. Southaven is a city in DeSoto County that is part of the greater Memphis area, and Senatobia has about 8,000 residents.

A lawsuit filed in federal court in Mississippi in 2021 accused Foster and a group of 12 other Southaven police officers of civil rights violations during the 2019 arrest of two Black men outside a Waffle House. The men said they were searching for a lost set of keys when several officers violently arrested and beat them. They alleged that Foster submitted a report falsely stating that they tried to run over another officer with their vehicle. Foster and the other officers denied wrongdoing, and the Southaven Police Department agreed to settle the case in 2022 for an undisclosed amount, court records show.

Separately, the city’s board of aldermen fired Senatobia Police Chief Harold Vanderford last month after reporting by The New York Times, Mississippi Today and Verite News alleged that he used racist slurs in private text messages.