SENATOBIA — For many residents of this tiny city about 40 miles south of Memphis, the fatal police shooting of a 1-year-old Black toddler in June became a flashpoint after years of complaints about discriminatory and overzealous policing.
The toddler, Kohen Wiley, was killed when police officers shot at a vehicle he was in after they responded to a shoplifting call at a local Walmart store.
Harold Vanderford, chief of Senatobia police department, seen in a post on the department’s Facebook page. Credit: Senatobia Police Department, via Facebook
Last year, the city’s elected aldermen had forced out its previous police chief after a string of controversies, including an incident in which one of his officers had arrested a 10-year-old Black boy who had urinated in public. But the new police chief, brought in last fall for his “firm, fair and focused” leadership style, routinely used racist slurs in private text conversations with a colleague even after he was appointed, reporters for Mississippi Today, Verite News and The New York Times have learned.
In one text message, the chief, Harold Vanderford, described having a “racist moment.” In another, he wrote that he “almost beat a nigger and white woman’s ass a few minutes ago.”
Vanderford used the racist slur, spelled various ways, more than a dozen times in a series of 10 text conversations dating back to last summer and continuing after he became chief. The texts were provided to reporters by the person who had received them, who said they came from Chief Vanderford. Three other acquaintances confirmed that the phone number associated with the messages belonged to the chief.
Three months before the Walmart shooting, Vanderford texted a colleague to lament Mississippi State University’s performance in a college sporting event, referring to a player using a racist slur.
In at least two instances in April, Vanderford used the slur to refer to himself or his white friend, text messages show. On another occasion, he texted that he was drunk and that he had “screamed” the slur 15 times, loud enough in hopes that his neighbors would hear.
On Thanksgiving Day, the chief texted that he “just had a racist moment on Goodman Road,” a street in Southaven.
Vanderford did not respond to phone and email messages left by reporters, or notes left at his home and the police station. The mayor of Senatobia, Greg Graves, did not respond to a request for comment.
“It is completely unacceptable for any law enforcement in Mississippi to use racial slurs, whether in private or in public, because no official can protect and serve a community while harboring hatred toward its people,” said Charles Taylor, the executive director of the Mississippi chapter of the NAACP.
When he took over the department, Chief Vanderford, a 60-year-old native of Greenville and 29-year veteran of law enforcement, vowed his tenure would focus on “reestablishing and solidifying trust” with the community.
Then, in June, his officers confronted Vellesiya Wiley and Latoya Ferrell after they were accused by people in a Walmart of stealing baby clothes and a pack of diapers. The pair got into a vehicle, and officers surrounded them with raised guns.
Wiley, who was in the passenger seat holding her son, said that as they drove away, she lifted up the boy in an effort to make sure officers saw him. Then she heard three or four shots.
Attorneys representing the family of 1-year-old Kohen Wiley are calling for law enforcement in Senatobia to release body and dashboard camera footage and on Monday June 22, announced plans for an independent autopsy. Kohen would have turned two later this year. Credit: Ben Crump Law
According to a statement released the day of the incident by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating the shooting, officers had attempted to stop the car, but “the driver drove in the direction of the officers, almost striking one.”
State and local law enforcement officials said they would not answer questions or release body-worn camera or surveillance footage of the incident until their investigation was complete. On Monday, the Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus demanded updates on the state’s investigation from the attorney general.
The Wiley family hired Ben Crump, the civil rights lawyer, who presented forensic evidence suggesting that the police had fired from the side of the vehicle, which, he said, indicated that the officer had not been in harm’s way.
In documents released “in error,” state law enforcement officials identified Sgt. Hunter Foster as the subject of their investigation. In the months leading up to the shooting, Foster had directed racist remarks at two of his co-workers, according to internal complaints obtained by Mississippi Today.
In July, Mississippi Today reported that two days before the Walmart shooting, Foster had directed a racially offensive remark toward a Black co-worker, according to an internal complaint. Six months before the shooting, Foster was also accused of making derogatory remarks toward a fellow officer who is white and has a daughter with his Black partner, according to an internal complaint. The officer, Joshua Griffin, now a deputy with the Tate County Sheriff’s Department, declined a request for comment.
According to the written complaint, Foster told Griffin, “you need to get your people” in relation to a foot chase involving Black people. A week later, Foster made a second remark using a crude sexist epithet, saying that the owner of a suspicious vehicle was Griffin’s “type,” which Griffin took to mean a Black woman, the complaint said.
Foster remained on patrol. In June, two days before the Walmart shooting, he referred to a Black officer in the department using a racist expletive, according to the internal complaint. That officer, Dexter Smith, filed the complaint the day after the shooting.
A lawyer representing Foster, Martin Zummach, hasn’t addressed Foster’s comments, but wrote in an emailed statement that he was “very convinced” that his client would be cleared of allegations of wrongdoing.
Vanderford hasn’t publicly addressed the shooting. The Wiley family said he had not offered condolences.
