No charges for police in toddler's shooting death, families ask why

For the people of Senatobia, Mississippi, the questions raised by a one-year-old boy’s death at the hands of police remain unanswered, even as the state’s top law enforcement official has closed the door on criminal accountability. Attorney General Lynn Fitch ruled on Monday that officers used “justified” force when they shot at a car during a shoplifting investigation in June, a decision that has left Kohen Wiley’s family and supporters demanding transparency they say they have yet to receive.

The stakes for the community are considerable. The shooting occurred on the Juneteenth holiday that marks the end of slavery in the United States, and it prompted protests in the city. Demonstrators have alleged that race played a role in the investigation, noting that Kohen and the two women in the car are black, while the officer who fired the shots is reportedly white. Adding to community distrust, the city last month fired its white police chief after newspapers uncovered text messages in which he repeatedly used racial slurs.

The events began on 14 June, when police were called to a Walmart store after a report that nappies and baby clothes had been stolen. According to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, officers arrived to find two women and a child walking towards a car. Officers attempted to stop the vehicle, which they say was then driven at one of them, nearly striking the officer. One officer opened fire, fatally striking the boy and critically injuring the driver, Latoya Ferrell.

Kohen had been sitting on his mother’s lap in the passenger seat when he was hit. His mother, Vellesiya Wiley, has denied that she or Ferrell were stealing, and said she lifted her son up from her lap to show officers he was there before the gunfire struck him. Neither she nor Ferrell has been charged with a crime.

In a short statement on Monday, Fitch wrote: “In this incident, the Attorney General’s Office found the use of force was justified.” The ruling has done little to settle public concern, largely because no footage of the shooting has been released, whether from officer-worn body cameras or from CCTV recordings taken in the parking lot.

That absence of evidence is central to the family’s objection. Civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump, representing the Wiley family, denounced the attorney general’s findings and pressed for the release of the recordings. “How can anyone accept that conclusion when Kohen’s family and the public still have not been allowed to see the body-camera footage?” he said. “If the footage supports the state’s decision, release it. We will not stop fighting until this family gets the truth.”

By contrast, the officer’s side of the case has also been aired. Martin Zummach, a lawyer for the officer who fired the shots, told the Associated Press that the driver had “tried to kill” his client. “He had no choice but to fire his weapon,” Zummach said.

The dispute now turns on a question of public accountability: whether citizens will be allowed to judge the state’s conclusion for themselves. As reported in coverage by the BBC, available at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwj0l72d5pygo, the family’s call for the release of footage remains unresolved, and the community of Senatobia continues to await answers about how a routine shoplifting call ended with the death of a toddler.