Officer Will Not Face Charges Over Mississippi Toddler's Death
The Facts
- Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch's office announced Monday that a Senatobia police officer's use of force was justified in the June shooting death of 1-year-old Kohen Wiley. No criminal charges will be filed against the officer.
- Officers responded June 14 to a report that Vellesiya Wiley and Latoya Ferrell had taken diapers from a Senatobia Walmart, roughly 40 miles south of Memphis. Wiley lifted her son to show officers a child was in the car before an officer fired, killing Kohen and wounding Ferrell.
- The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation said the driver drove toward officers and nearly struck one before an officer fired. Five agents were assigned to the case to review witness statements, body and dash camera video and Walmart surveillance video.
Sources Split
LEFT
CENTER
RIGHT
+2
+1
+2
ESTAB
CRIT
CENTER
PRO
ESTAB
The Spin
Establishment-critical narrative
Black residents of Senatobia have warned for years about abusive policing, and then a sergeant accused by a Black colleague of using a racial slur two days earlier shoots a toddler in his mother’s arms. The mother claims no investigator interviewed her, while no videos have been made public. Mississippi’s record of policing Black communities leaves little reason to accept a finding that nothing went wrong.
Pro-establishment narrative
This shooting was the result of a split-second decision, a common challenge in policing, and state investigators reviewed the incident and cleared the accused. Treating one officer’s choice as proof that Southern police are systemically racist insults the many who serve fairly and makes the next instance like this even harder for serving officers. Senatobia fired its chief over his private messages and removed his predecessor, and those comments were nothing to do with this fatal outcome.
© 2026 Improve the News Foundation.
All rights reserved.
Version 7.18.2