One-year-old Kohen Wiley was killed when police fired into a moving car. The state has cleared the officer, but newly released footage raises questions about the decisions that led to the shooting.
On June 14, 2026, police officers approached a car outside a Walmart in Senatobia, Mississippi. They were responding to a report of suspected shoplifting involving diapers and baby clothes.
Inside the vehicle were two women and a one-year-old boy named Kohen Wiley.
The encounter lasted only seconds. The driver reversed from a parking space, struck another vehicle and then moved forward as officers surrounded the car. One officer fired into it.
Kohen was killed. The driver was seriously wounded.
Four months later, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office announced that the officer’s use of deadly force was justified. It would not pursue criminal charges.
I have watched the reporting unfold with one question in mind. How did a police response to suspected shoplifting reach the point where officers opened fire on a car carrying a baby?
The driver’s conduct matters. So do the decisions police made before the shots were fired.
Neither can be examined properly in isolation.
The video raises questions the state has not publicly answered
Body-camera and surveillance recordings released in October offered the clearest public account yet of the encounter.
The footage shows officers approaching the vehicle as the women attempted to leave. At least one officer moved into the car’s path. As the vehicle moved forward, Sergeant Hunter Foster fired into it.
The recordings are incomplete. They do not establish everything the officers saw or understood at that moment.
Foster’s lawyer, Martin Zummach, argues that his client faced an immediate threat to his life. The car was moving toward officers, and an approaching vehicle can inflict fatal injuries.
Nobody should dismiss that danger.
But Mississippi Today’s October 22 investigation identified another problem.The newspaper asked six specialists in police training, forensic reconstruction and use of force to review the available footage. All six questioned the officers’ tactics.
An attorney experienced in defending police officers disagreed, warning that video analysis cannot fully reproduce what officers experience during a rapidly developing encounter.
One finding stood out.
Senatobia’s own use-of-force policy instructed officers that their first responsibility when facing an approaching vehicle was to move out of its path.
Mississippi Today reported that the officers’ actions appeared to conflict with that instruction.
The newspaper’s findings are not a court ruling. They do, however, raise a specific concern about police conduct, supported by the department’s written policy rather than speculation about what officers should have done.
The difference between justified force and sound policing
On October 19, the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office announced that the shooting was justified. Prosecutors would not present criminal charges against Foster.
The state’s brief public statement did not provide a detailed explanation of its reasoning.
That leaves a distinction worth examining.
Criminal prosecution requires evidence that can establish an offence under the applicable law. Police departments must also assess whether officers complied with their training and operational policies.
An action can raise serious professional concerns even when prosecutors conclude that criminal charges are not supported.
American constitutional law offers additional context.
In May 2025, the US Supreme Court decided Barnes v. Felix, another case involving an officer who fired at a person in a moving vehicle.The Court unanimously held that judges assessing excessive force must consider the totality of the circumstances. They cannot restrict their examination to the final seconds before an officer fires.
The earlier decisions and movements of those involved may affect how a reasonable officer would understand the danger.
The Court did not decide the separate question of whether an officer’s own creation of a dangerous situation makes a subsequent use of force unreasonable.
That distinction matters in Senatobia.
The available footage supports examining the driver’s movements and the officers’ positioning. It also invites scrutiny of the actions leading up to the confrontation.
The state’s decision answers whether it intends to prosecute Foster. It does not provide a complete public assessment of the tactics used during the encounter.
Allegations of racism cannot be ignored, but they must be examined carefully
Kohen was Black. Foster is white.
Race became part of the public debate almost immediately.
The concern did not arise solely from the racial identities of the people involved. Investigative reporting also revealed complaints about racial language within the Senatobia Police Department.
In July, Mississippi Today reported that a Black officer had accused Foster of making a racially offensive remark. The newspaper later reported that another colleague had also accused him of offensive racial comments.Those complaints are relevant to an examination of the department’s culture. They do not independently establish that racial prejudice motivated the shooting.
In September, police chief Harold Vanderford was fired after reporting exposed racist language in text messages he had exchanged with a colleague.
The department’s handling of racial misconduct therefore deserves scrutiny on its own terms.
There is no need to invent an officer’s political affiliations or assume his motives to examine these matters.
Documented complaints and management decisions provide a stronger basis for reporting.
Kohen’s death did provoke protests
Another part of the story deserves attention.
Local residents began protesting after the shooting. Community organisers demanded the release of police footage, while civil-rights advocates sought an independent examination of the incident.
The family retained attorney Ben Crump, whose involvement helped bring the case before a wider audience.
Mississippi Today continued investigating throughout the following months. National news organisations also reported on the shooting.
It would therefore be wrong to say that nobody cared or that Black activists remained silent.
There is still a legitimate question about national attention.
Some cases become enduring symbols of police violence. Others receive intense coverage for a few days before disappearing from national headlines, while families continue their campaigns.
Determining whether Kohen’s death received less attention than comparable incidents would require a systematic examination of news coverage and public responses.
The evidence currently establishes something narrower: local communities did not remain passive, and the family’s campaign continued after the first reports appeared.
Their efforts should be recognised.
The officer resigned. The questions remain.
On October 24, Reuters reported that Foster and Senatobia’s interim police chief, Angelica Maze, had resigned.Foster’s lawyer said his client stepped down to help the city and police department heal.
Resignation changes the personnel involved. It does not establish whether the department’s policies were followed or whether the shooting could have been prevented.
Kohen’s family continues to demand further scrutiny.
Crump has called for a federal investigation. The family has also sought action concerning Foster’s law-enforcement certification.
Federal investigators, if they open a case, would operate under a separate legal framework. A federal inquiry should not be presumed to have begun simply because the family requested one.
The available evidence already leaves important matters unresolved.
Did the officers know a child was inside the vehicle? Why did they approach in a manner that placed at least one officer in the car’s path? How did prosecutors assess the sequence of events before the shooting?
The released footage offers partial answers, but the public has not received a full account of the state’s legal analysis.
A birthday that will never be celebrated
Kohen Wiley would have turned two on November 1.
His family should have been preparing for that birthday. Instead, they have spent months seeking explanations for his death.
There is no need to claim that every police officer involved acted out of racial hatred. Nor is it necessary to excuse the driver’s movements.
Both the driver and the police made decisions during the encounter. An investigation worthy of the name should examine the available evidence about each decision and its consequences.
The Mississippi Attorney General’s Office has cleared Foster of criminal wrongdoing.
But the department’s policy, the officers’ positioning and the expert criticism of their tactics remain matters of legitimate public concern.
A state’s decision not to prosecute an officer does not mean the public must stop asking how a one-year-old child came to be killed during a shoplifting call.
Reporting and legal sources
- Mississippi Today, October 19: Attorney General clears Senatobia officer
- Mississippi Today, October 22: Experts examine the footage and police policy
- Reuters, October 24: Police officials resign
- US Supreme Court, May 15, 2025: Barnes v. Felix
- CBS News, October 23: Officer resigns
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