Mississippi Police Shot Baby 'From the Side' of Car, Autopsy Shows, Not Head-On as Claimed

A bullet that killed a 1-year-old boy in a Mississippi Walmart car park entered through the side passenger window, not the windshield, according to an independent autopsy that directly contradicts the official police account that the vehicle was driving towards officers.

The findings, presented by civil rights attorney Ben Crump on Wednesday, 1 July 2026, mark the most serious challenge yet to law enforcement's version of the shooting that killed Kohen Wiley on 14 June. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (MBI) has said an officer fired after the driver 'drove in the direction of the officers, almost striking one'. The family's pathologist says the physical evidence tells a different story.

Pathologist: Bullet Entered Through Side Window

Dr Robert Mitchell, a forensic pathologist retained by the family, examined Kohen's wounds and concluded the fatal shot struck the child's right torso before exiting his left side, Crump said at a news conference. He said abrasions on the boy's body were consistent with fragments of tempered glass, the type used in side windows, rather than the laminated glass of a windscreen.

'This police is shooting from the side,' Crump said. 'You can't get that shot from the front. Why would you shoot into a vehicle from the side where you're clearly not in harm's way?' He displayed a photograph of the sedan's shattered front passenger window alongside images from the autopsy.

Crump also said the abrasion pattern indicated the officer fired from at least an intermediate distance. Tate County Coroner Ernie Lentz confirmed the official autopsy report has not yet been completed, and Crump acknowledged the family's pathologist lacked access to complete investigative materials. The MBI declined to say whether it had reached the same conclusion, citing the 'ongoing investigation'.

Mother's Account Contradicts Police Version

The shooting occurred at approximately 14:05 on 14 June after Senatobia police responded to a shoplifting call at a Walmart roughly 40 miles south of Memphis. Officers say they encountered 'two subjects and a juvenile child fleeing from the store into a vehicle', and that the driver 'almost striking one' of the officers prompted the gunfire.

Kohen's mother, Vellesiya Wiley, disputes that account. In a video released through her attorneys, she said she was holding her son in the front passenger seat when officers opened fire as her friend drove away. 'I raised my baby up trying to show them that he was in the car,' she said. 'By the time I sat my baby down, it was like three to four shots. One of the shots hit him in his ribcage.' She said the driver was steering left, away from officers positioned to the right, not towards them.

The Tate County Sheriff's Office said in a Facebook statement that 'the suspects fled the parking lot in their vehicle after an officer fired at the oncoming vehicle'. The driver was critically injured and remains unidentified. WMC-TV Action News 5 reported that Sergeant Hunter Foster was among the officers on scene, though it remains unclear whether he was the one who fired.

Phone footage captured by witness Desirae Smith shows officers standing near the vehicle as it drives away, its passenger window already shattered. Neither the Senatobia Police Department nor the Sheriff's Office has released body-camera or dash-camera footage.

Family Calls for Release of Police Footage

Mississippi Department of Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell, who oversees the MBI, has said footage will not be released until the investigation concludes, a process he has declined to put a timeline on. Crump said Senatobia police have told the family the inquiry could take as long as nine months.

'They want us to believe that it was a life-or-death situation,' Crump said. 'They told us that, but they have not shown us that.' The officer who fired has been placed on administrative leave.

The case has drawn national attention and comparisons to other police shootings, including the 2023 killing of Ta'Kiya Young in Ohio. Kohen's family says the underlying shoplifting allegation, involving a box of diapers his mother believed had been paid for, has never been substantiated.

Community members in Senatobia, a town of roughly 8,000 people, have also pointed to a 2023 incident in which a Senatobia officer was fired after arresting a 10-year-old boy, a case that ended in a settled federal lawsuit against the city.

Kohen Wiley was buried on 27 June in a service attended by hundreds. His family says they will not stop pressing for the release of the footage that could confirm or refute the competing accounts of his final moments.