(The Center Square) – Use of police force by a Senatobia police officer toward a vehicle suspected of involvement in a crime on June 14, leading to the death of 1-year-old Kohen Wiley, has been justified by the attorney general’s office in Mississippi.
The decision follows a Mississippi Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the shooting outside a Walmart. The child was killed and an adult was wounded after an officer fired into a vehicle during a response to a reported shoplifting incident.
“In this incident, the Attorney General’s Office found the use of force was justified,” the office said in its statement.
The announcement did not identify the officer or explain what evidence supported the decision. It said the review involved one Senatobia Police Department officer and followed the state investigation pursuant to Section 45-1-6 of the Mississippi Code.
Authorities initially said officers responding to the Walmart on U.S. 51 encountered two people and a child entering a vehicle. According to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation’s account, the driver drove toward officers and nearly struck one before an officer fired. The vehicle left the scene and later arrived at a hospital, where the child was pronounced dead.
The child’s family has disputed that account. His mother, Vellesiya Wiley, said she was in the passenger seat and held up her son to show police a child was inside the vehicle. According to the Mississippi Free Press, she denied that the vehicle was aimed at officers or that shoplifting had occurred.
Senatobia interim Police Chief Angelica Maze announced Sept. 17 that state investigators had turned the case over to the attorney general’s office.
Monday’s statement did not address the family’s account or say whether investigative records or video would be released.