Family demands video after Mississippi police shooting kills toddler

Kohen Wiley’s funeral services were set for Saturday in Senatobia, while his family pressed a more immediate demand: release the video from the police shooting that killed the toddler and critically injured an adult in the car. Represented by civil rights attorney Ben Crump, the family also plans an independent autopsy, saying it does not want to rely only on the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation’s process. Crump said preliminary results were expected by July 1.

The shooting took place June 14 in the Walmart parking lot in Senatobia, a town of about 8,500 people roughly 40 miles south of Memphis, Tennessee. State investigators said officers responded to a shoplifting call and encountered two adults and a child fleeing the store in a vehicle. One officer opened fire after the driver allegedly drove toward officers. The family disputes that account and says Kohen, his mother Vellesiya Wiley and the other adults were buying diapers, not shoplifting.

The officer who fired has been placed on administrative leave and has not been publicly identified. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is handling the inquiry and will send its findings to the Attorney General’s Office after the investigation is complete. So far, investigators have not publicly explained why the shooting escalated so quickly, what the video shows, or how the officer’s account matches the family’s version of events.

The killing has rattled Senatobia and sharpened long-running concerns about police conduct in the city. A crowd gathered outside the Walmart on June 17 to honor Kohen and demand justice, and more than 200 people protested on June 16. Demonstrators later faced a police response with tear gas outside the Walmart and City Hall, deepening criticism of the Senatobia Police Department and the Tate County Sheriff’s Department’s role in the scene.

The case has also revived a broader question that surfaces after every police shooting involving a child: what standard of outside review is strong enough to settle a disputed encounter. In this case, the family is asking for two specific forms of transparency, the video and an independent autopsy, while state investigators retain control of the criminal inquiry. Until those records are public, the central facts of why Kohen Wiley died remain contested.