No criminal charges will be filed against the Mississippi police officer who shot and killed a Black toddler while responding to a shoplifting call, the state attorney general announced Monday after reviewing an investigation into the shooting and decided not to press charges.
The conclusion of the state’s investigation into the shooting death of 1-year-old Kohen Wiley follows months of mourning and calls for justice, both nationally and in Senatobia, a small town about 40 miles south of Memphis, Tennessee, where the shooting took place.
The shooting occurred in mid-June as Senatobia officers responded to a shoplifting call at a local Walmart, where they saw Vellesiya Wiley, Kohen’s mother, carrying her son as she and a friend left the store, got into a car and began driving away. Wiley and her friend are both Black.
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According to a statement released shortly after the shooting by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, officers attempted to stop the vehicle, but the car drove toward law enforcement, prompting an officer to fire into the car, striking Kohen and his mother’s friend.
In a video released days after the shooting, Vellesiya Wiley denied that she or her friend stole anything and disputed that her friend, who was driving, headed toward the officers. Ben Crump, a nationally renowned civil rights attorney who is representing Kohen’s family, has said results of a preliminary independent autopsy indicate Kohen was shot from the side of the car, not the front, contradicting officers’ claims that the car was heading toward them.
Police reports indicate diapers and baby clothes were allegedly stolen, but neither Kohen’s mother nor her friend has been charged with theft.
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