Mississippi AG Clears Officer, Says 'Use of Force Was Justified' in Killing of 1-Year-Old Kohen Wiley

Mississippi's attorney general has cleared the police officer who shot and killed one-year-old Kohen Wiley in a Walmart car park in Senatobia, finding that his use of force was justified.

Attorney General Lynn Fitch's office announced on Monday 19 October 2026 that it had completed its review of the June shooting and would not bring charges. Kohen was in his mother's arms in the front passenger seat of a car when the officer fired while responding to a reported shoplifting.

His family, who dispute the police account, say they learned of the decision on Facebook.

'The Use of Force Was Justified'

In a short news release, the attorney general's office said it 'has completed the review' of the incident involving one Senatobia Police Department officer. 'In this incident, the Attorney General's Office found the use of force was justified,' the statement said, SuperTalk Mississippi reported.

The release did not name the officer, but other records identify him as Sergeant Hunter Foster, Mississippi Today reported. The state will not bring charges against him, SuperTalk Mississippi reported. Foster was placed on administrative leave days after the shooting, and it is unclear whether he will return to the department.

The office reviewed the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation's inquiry, which included witness statements, body and dashboard camera video and store surveillance footage, and found 'the use of force justified under Mississippi law', The NC Beat reported. The video has not been released to the public.

The release did not set out the evidence behind the decision or the legal standard the office applied, according to SuperTalk Mississippi.

A Reported Shoplifting at Walmart

The shooting happened on 14 June 2026, when officers responded to a reported shoplifting at the Walmart on US 51 in Senatobia, a city in north-west Mississippi. Officers said they saw two women and a child leave the store and get into a vehicle, according to the MBI.

According to the MBI's account, the driver drove towards officers as they tried to stop the car, almost striking one, and Foster then fired his service weapon as the vehicle fled. The shot struck Kohen, who died at an area hospital.

The family dispute that account. Kohen's mother, Vellesiya Wiley, has said the vehicle was backing away when shots were fired, Newsweek reported. Lawyers for the family have also rejected claims that anyone stole items from the store, and the women in the car had not been charged, according to Mississippi Today.

Wiley said she held her son as officers fired into the car and tried to show them that her baby was inside. 'I watched my baby take his first breath, and I watched my baby take his last breath,' she said in June, Mississippi Today reported. The driver, who was also hit, suffered wounds to the arm and thigh.

In July, a lawyer for the family released a photo showing that the car's front side window had been shot out, which they said suggested police were not in the vehicle's direct path. Mississippi Today reported that Foster is white and that Wiley and the driver are Black.

Family Learned of Decision on Facebook

Kohen's grandmother, Veronica Roberson, said she found out about the attorney general's decision on Facebook, and that no state or local law enforcement official had contacted the family, according to Mississippi Today. Wiley said in early October that MBI agents had never interviewed her.

The family is represented by civil rights lawyer Ben Crump. An independent autopsy by pathologist Dr Roger Mitchell, released by the family's lawyers in July, found that Kohen died from a shotgun blast that entered the right side of his chest and exited the left, and classified the death as a homicide, a forensic term for a death caused by another person rather than a finding of criminal wrongdoing, Newsweek reported.

According to Crump, the shot came through the passenger-side window rather than the windscreen, which he said showed the officer fired from the side. 'How are you in fear of your life when you're shooting from the side?' he asked. 'If we don't stand up for this 1-year-old baby, none of our children are safe.'

In June, Crump questioned why an officer would fire into a moving vehicle over the alleged theft of a box of nappies and a bottle of water. Hundreds of demonstrators marched from Senatobia city hall to the Walmart after the shooting, and law enforcement used tear gas to disperse the crowd, Mississippi Today reported.

Foster joined the Senatobia department in March 2025 and was promoted to sergeant months later, The NC Beat reported.

In June, Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell said five agents had been assigned to the investigation and that records would be released once it was complete. 'I want you to be assured that it will be a thorough investigation, and it will be one where transparency is there,' he said, according to Mississippi Today.

A Department of Public Safety spokesperson has indicated that the video would be available through public records requests, The NC Beat reported, but it remained unclear when the footage Kohen's family has spent months demanding would be released.