The family of 1-year-old Kohen Wiley is asking the Department of Justice to investigate his death after the Mississippi Attorney General’s office ruled this week that the officer who shot him was justified. Kohen was killed in a Senatobia Walmart parking lot on June 14. Attorneys Ben Crump and Van Turner held a press conference Thursday with the family and community activists. They say they reviewed surveillance and body camera footage Thursday morning that matches the family’s independent autopsy, and Crump argues the third of three bullets fired is the one that killed the baby and was not justified.
The officer at the center of this, Hunter Foster, reportedly resigned after being cleared by the Attorney General’s office. The family and community activists now want him decertified. Kohen’s grandmother, LaSandra Williams, says she’s having a difficult time understanding the word justified. One community voice at the press conference, Brackin Camp, framed it simply: “It’s not a white or Black issue. It’s a right or wrong issue.”
The push for federal intervention raises bigger questions about accountability and transparency when police use deadly force. The case is playing out in Mississippi, but it lands with families everywhere, including here on the Suncoast. Do you think the DOJ should investigate? Let us know.
