Bodycam clip released in fatal police shooting of Mississippi one-year-old
The family lawyer says an allegation of shoplifting "does not warrant the death" of a child.
Bodycam footage released in fatal police shooting of Mississippi one-year-old
Mississippi authorities have made public body camera video showing how a toddler was fatally shot by a police officer responding to a report of shoplifting in a Walmart car park.
Kohen Wiley, who was one, was sitting on his mother’s lap in a moving car when officers surrounded the vehicle in the city of Senatobia on 14 June.
The state’s attorney general concluded that the officer was justified in using force, while the officer’s lawyer said in a statement to the BBC that the driver was trying to kill law enforcement.
The child’s family says the shooting was not justified. Their lawyer, Ben Crump, has described the police response as “excessive from the very start”.
Crump said an accusation of shoplifting “does not warrant the death” of a child.
Kohen Wiley was in the vehicle with his mother, Vellesiya Wiley, and another woman when the incident happened.
Senatobia Mayor Greg Graves confirmed to the BBC’s US partner CBS that Hunter Foster, the officer who fired the shots, had resigned.
The Senatobia Police Department did not immediately reply to BBC requests for confirmation.
The footage released by Mississippi authorities on Thursday shows the officer’s first-person view.
After being told by a staff member that suspected shoplifters were getting away, five law enforcement officers run toward the car with guns drawn.
The vehicle reverses, hitting a parked car, before moving forward again.
The officer wearing the body camera raises his gun and points it at the moving vehicle as he runs closer, shouting: “Stop!”
As the car passes very close to the officer, he fires his gun, breaking the passenger-side window.
Four gunshots can be heard as police order the driver to stop. The car then continues slowly out of the car park.
CCTV footage from the storefront appears to show that at the moment the officer opens fire, another officer is standing near the front of the moving vehicle.
“The driver of the vehicle was attempting to kill those 5 officers,” Martin Zummach, an attorney representing the officer, said in a statement to the BBC, adding that his client “had no choice but to discharge his weapon”.
“We are very sad for the loss of life,” Zummach said. “But the outcome of the investigation was not only expected, but it was overdue.”
The child’s mother, Wiley, has denied that she and her friend stole nappies from the store. No charges have been filed against them.
The boy’s death has led to protests and vigils in Mississippi.
At a news conference, relatives called for accountability.
“After what I’ve seen today, I’m having a difficult time understanding the word, ‘justified,’” said LaSandra Williams, Kohen Wiley’s grandmother.