Summary
" Crump said on Monday. "If the footage supports the state's decision, release it. We will not stop fighting until this family gets the truth." The ki…
Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch announced on Monday that her office has completed its review of a June police shooting that killed a 1-year-old boy, and found that the officer's use of force was justified. The officer will not face criminal charges.
The shooting happened on June 14 in Senatobia, a small city about 40 miles south of Memphis, after officers responded to a shoplifting call at a Walmart. Police alleged that diapers and baby clothes had been stolen.
According to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, officers saw Vellesiya Wiley carrying her son, Kohen, as she and a friend left the store and got into a car. When officers tried to stop the vehicle, investigators said, the car drove toward law enforcement, nearly striking an officer, who fired into the vehicle. Kohen, who was in his mother's arms, was killed. The driver, Latoya Ferrell, was critically injured.
Wiley has denied that she or Ferrell stole anything. Neither woman has been charged with shoplifting or any other offense, according to court records.
An attorney for the officer, Martin Zummach, said the attorney general's findings cleared his client of criminal wrongdoing, arguing that the driver "tried to kill" the officers present. "He had no choice but to fire his weapon," Zummach told the Associated Press. Local outlets have identified the officer as Sgt. Hunter Foster, who was placed on administrative leave after the shooting.
The child's family, represented by civil rights attorney Ben Crump, has disputed the official account from the start. Crump has said an independent autopsy showed the bullet entered Kohen's body from the right side rather than the front, which the family argues contradicts the claim that the car was heading directly at officers. He has repeatedly demanded the release of body-camera and surveillance footage, which authorities have not made public.
"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 on Monday. "If the footage supports the state's decision, release it. We will not stop fighting until this family gets the truth."
The killing sparked several days of protests in Senatobia and drew national attention over the months since, with community members and civil rights advocates demanding accountability. The attorney general's review, conducted under Mississippi law following the Bureau of Investigation's inquiry, was brief and did not publicly detail how investigators reached their conclusion.
With the state's criminal case now closed, the family's remaining avenues are civil litigation and continued pressure for the footage's release.
Source: CNN
