Family of toddler fatally shot by Senatobia police is shown unredacted footage by Mississippi officials in private screening

By Mukta Joshi | Originally published by Mississippi Today

Mukta Joshi is an investigative reporter at Mississippi Today. She is spending a year as a New York Times Local Investigations fellow examining immigration and criminal justice issues. She can be reached at mukta.joshi@nytimes.com.

BATESVILLE – The family of Kohen Wiley, the 1-year-old boy fatally shot by the Senatobia police this summer, gathered with state officials Thursday to view unredacted footage of the confrontation, two days after leaked clips were published by a local news outlet and widely circulated on social media.

The viewing was arranged by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation in Batesville, the family’s hometown, and was closed to the public. Only the toddler’s parents, grandmothers and two members of the family’s legal team were allowed inside. 

The Mississippi attorney general, Lynn Fitch, said on Monday that her office would not seek criminal charges against Hunter Foster, the Senatobia officer who fired his weapon at a car while officers pursued two women accused of stealing diapers and baby clothes from a Walmart on June 14. 

Kohen’s mother, Vellesiya Wiley, walked out of the meeting after watching the first clip, which had been captured by Foster’s body-worn camera. Wiley said she had already been hesitant to attend after seeing the leaked footage two days before. She said she felt she didn’t need to see any more, especially after Fitch said the shooting was justified. 

Kohen’s death set off local protests and raised questions about why the police needed to use deadly force over what appeared to be a minor crime.  

At least five officers chased the women into the parking lot and then drew their guns when a car carrying Kohen and the women backed out of a parking space and tried to flee. 

The car, driven by Latoya Ferrell, moved in the direction of two officers. The authorities publicly stated at the time that the car nearly struck one of them. In the body camera and surveillance footage leaked this week, it is difficult to tell if the car hit any of the officers. 

Foster, the only officer investigated by state authorities in the incident, fired his weapon four times, the footage showed. Foster has not responded to multiple requests from Mississippi Today reporters for comment over the past several months. Martin Zummach, Foster’s lawyer, said Monday that the attorney general’s decision was “expected” and “overdue.”

Wiley’s mother, Veronica Roberson, who attended the meeting Thursday, said footage from the shooter’s body camera clearly showed he was beside the car, not in front of it, when he fired some of his shots. State officials did not slow down the video or give a frame-by-frame presentation to the family, Ben Crump, the family’s lawyer, said.

The shooter’s body-cam footage was not included in leaked clips published this week by Darkhorse Press, a Mississippi news outlet. State officials are expected to publicly release the video now that the family has viewed it.

Roberson said that the family tried to ask officials about details of the encounter during the private screening, but they said they “weren’t going to get into all that.”

The footage shown in the screening began with a group of officers sitting in a room inside the Walmart, watching unrelated security footage, Crump said. A person who apparently worked at the store and had tried to stop Ferrell and Wiley near the exit then entered the room and said, “They’re running.” Video shows officers sprinting out to surround the car carrying the two women and the toddler. 

Roberson said that when they asked officials if the car had injured any officers, “they said the car had made contact with Foster.” 

The footage leaked this week shows the car driving toward Foster but turning away from him as it gets close to him. Foster puts his hand on the hood of the car and pivots to avoid being hit. He does not fall down. It is difficult to discern whether the car touches his body. He then continues running and chasing the car along with other officers after the car had passed. In subsequent footage, he is seen standing outside the hospital where Kohen was declared dead. 

Shortly after the viewing, Crump held a press conference in Senatobia and criticized the attorney general’s determination that the shooting was justified, repeating that the shot from the side was not justified. He questioned the officers’ drawing guns in response to alleged shoplifting, which would have amounted to a misdemeanor offense. Neither woman has been charged. 

Van Turner, the Mississippi lawyer representing Kohen’s family as a member of Crump’s legal team, said he would ask federal authorities to review the footage.

The Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus called for Fitch to give a detailed explanation of how she had reached her decision, and for an independent review of the Senatobia Police Department’s practices.

“Attorney General Fitch cannot reasonably expect public confidence in a decision the public has not been given the evidence to evaluate,” Representative Kabir Karriem, chairman of the caucus, said in a news release. “Announcing that a review is complete does not fulfill the responsibility to explain how a police encounter ended with a baby dead.” 

Mississippi Today Justice and Special Projects Editor Debbie Skipper contributed reporting. 

This article was originally published by Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Source: Original Article