Mississippi officer involved in shooting death of one-year-old Kohen Wiley placed on leave
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Protestors gathered outside the Senatobia Walmart where Wiley was shot on Sunday. During the gathering, officers on the scene launched tear gas at the crowd.
One day after protests erupted outside of a Mississippi Walmart where one-year-old Kohen Wiley was shot and later died in relation to an alleged shoplifting complaint, the officer involved has been placed on administrative leave.
Protestors gathered outside the Senatobia Walmart on Tuesday evening, where they were met by police officers wearing gas masks near the store’s grocery-side entrance. After numerous chants calling for justice for Wiley, police launched tear gas at the crowd, forcing them to disperse.
The mayor and the Senatobia Board of Aldermen confirmed that the officer involved was placed on leave and that his name has not been released to the public.
The young child was with his mother, Vellesiya Wiley, and her friend as they left the Walmart on Sunday afternoon. After a shoplifting complaint was called in, alleging that someone stole a box of diapers, officers arrived at the scene. In their report, they alleged that the driver of the vehicle Wiley was in was driving toward them, prompting the officer to open fire. Wiley was shot and later died at a hospital. The driver of the vehicle was hospitalized in critical condition.
Witnesses to the shooting dispute officers’ claims that the vehicle was driving toward them.
In an interview with ABC24 Memphis, Vellesiya Wiley disputed the officers’ claims, saying her friend drove in the opposite direction of officers as they were trying to leave. She said she lifted her son in the air to show officers there was a baby in the vehicle but officers opened fire. Kohen was shot in his rib cage, while her friend was shot in her arm and thigh.
Vellesiya Wiley said they left the Walmart because the shoplifting incident had nothing to do with them.
The protest at Walmart was one of three in the area, including one at City Hall. At the Tate County Courthouse, Mississippi Department of Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell again affirmed to a gathered crowd that the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation would have complete transparency in relation to the shooting death of Wiley, while also confirming that video of the shooting would not be released to the public until the investigation was complete.
Wiley’s family has called for the release of Walmart surveillance footage and the officer’s body camera footage.
“It’s important to us (investigators) to interview witnesses without the threat of intimidation,” Tindell said. “It’s important that we keep civility during this process so we can get to the bottom of it and analyze all the evidence and ultimately make it available to you all.”
Senatobia has a population of 8,500, 40 percent of whom are Black. Despite having a crime rate below the national average, the city has had several incidents involving its police force that have drawn scrutiny. In 2024, a 10-year-old boy was arrested and charged with public urination as his mother was in an attorney’s office. The boy was handcuffed and placed in a jail cell and was sentenced to three months’ probation, until the charge was dropped.
“Kohen Wiley was a baby. His mother, who has not been charged with any crime, says she was trying to communicate to officers that there was a baby in the car,” attorney Ben Crump said in a statement. “They fired anyway, leading to the death of an innocent one-year-old. We intend to seek justice for baby Kohen and the life that was stolen from him.”