SENATOBIA (Azat TV) – State authorities in Mississippi released comprehensive body camera and surveillance footage Thursday detailing the June 14 encounter in which a 1-year-old boy was shot and killed by a Senatobia police officer. The publication follows an independent review by the Mississippi attorney general’s office, which concluded that Senatobia Police Sgt. Hunter Foster was justified in his use of force when he fired into a moving vehicle during a shoplifting response at a local Walmart parking lot, as reported by NBC News.
The newly released recordings capture multiple camera angles, including footage from the officer who discharged his weapon. The sequence shows two women, one carrying the child, running across the parking lot and entering a vehicle while five officers approach with drawn weapons. As the vehicle reverses, strikes a parked car, and then accelerates forward, Sgt. Foster steps directly in front of the moving automobile before firing through the front passenger window.
Conflicting Expert Assessments and Family Outrage
The release of the video has intensified a sharp divide between law enforcement representatives and the family’s legal team over the necessity of the lethal force. Ben Crump, an attorney representing the family of Kohen Wiley, argued at a Thursday news conference that the officers’ tactics were reckless and that the video proves the fatal shot was fired from the side, demonstrating that the officer was not in imminent danger of being struck.
Conversely, defense attorney Martin Zummach maintained that his client acted out of immediate self-defense. Zummach told NBC News that the investigation’s findings refute the narrative surrounding the incident and that the officer fired instinctively as the car moved toward him. Independent use-of-force experts reviewing the footage also offered conflicting evaluations, with one concluding the action was a split-second defensive response to a deadly threat, while another criticized the tactical positioning that placed the officer in front of a fleeing vehicle.
Calls for Federal Intervention
Kohen’s relatives expressed profound distress over both the outcome of the state investigation and the manner in which the findings were communicated. Veronica Roberson, the child’s maternal grandmother, stated that learning through news reports that the officer had been cleared felt like a severe grievance, compounded by the prior online leak of partial video clips.
In response to the state’s decision to clear the officer of criminal wrongdoing, the family’s legal representatives have formally requested that the U.S. Department of Justice launch a federal civil rights investigation into the fatal encounter. State and local court records confirm that the driver of the vehicle has not faced criminal charges related to the alleged retail theft.