Newly released Senatobia police report leaves major questions unanswered in killing of 1-year-old Kohen Wiley
TheGrio...
The report omits key details about the officers involved and how the encounter escalated, fueling the family’s calls for transparency.
It has been a month since police shot and killed 1-year-old Kohen Wiley in a Walmart parking lot in Senatobia, Mississippi. Wiley unfortunately became a fatality during a police encounter in which officers were responding to reports of shoplifting. As the family continues to demand answers for what happened to the 1-year-old’s death, Mississippi Today obtained a two-page report on the incident from department officials.
However, the report, obtained through a public records request, offers little to no detail about what happened in the Senatobia Walmart parking lot, failing to describe how many officers were at the scene, the names of the officers involved, if there were any witnesses, or how the situation escalated. Instead, the document simply notes that authorities responded to a call at the retailer a little after 1:30 pm on June 14, alleging that someone was shoplifting baby clothes and diapers. By 2:04, officers allegedly fired gunshots at the vehicle in which Vellesiya Wiley, her son, and her friend were sitting. Kohen was reportedly struck in the chest by the three to four rounds of shots that were sent to the vehicle as he sat in his mother’s lap.
“I watched my baby take his first breath and I watched my baby take his last breath,” Vellesiya previously stated. “I’m still in disbelief about the traumatizing event that occurred that took my one and only child, baby Kohen. I ask that you keep my family in your prayers and justice for baby Kohen.”
Since the incident, Vellesiya, her attorney and friend, has been demanding that an independent autopsy be conducted on the young boy and that police release the video footage from the incident. While Senatobia police officers claim that the officer fired at an oncoming vehicle, a preliminary autopsy requested by the family suggested the baby was shot from the side of the car, not the front.
“We’re going to try to continue to demand transparency,” the family’s attorney Ben Crump said, calling for authorities to release officer body camera footage, Walmart surveillance video and dashcam recordings from the scene.