The Mississippi Department of Public Safety has released body camera footage of the June 14 officer shooting that killed 1-year-old Kohen Wiley in a Senatobia Walmart parking lot. The video shows officers in the store’s loss prevention office receiving word that “two women are running,” then chasing Wiley and another woman to a car. As the driver backed out, officers with guns drawn ordered the car to stop. The driver moved toward the officers, hit one of them, struck a parked vehicle, and fled.
The release follows a decision by Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office that the officers’ actions were justified. Wiley’s family rejects that conclusion and is pressing the Department of Justice to open its own investigation, keeping the case in the public eye and raising familiar questions about use-of-force policy and how families respond when a state clears its own officers.
Here on the Suncoast, we’re a long way from Senatobia, but the debate is the same one our own communities wrestle with after every high-stakes police decision: how do you honor the danger officers face while answering for the loss of a child? The video won’t settle that debate. It will likely deepen it. Do you think federal review should be granted in cases like this? Let us know in the comments.
