The resignation followed the public release of bodycam recordings that prompted questions about how the police handled the episode.
Earlier this week, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch stated that the police shooting of 1-year-old Kohen Wiley in a Walmart parking lot earlier this year was a “justified” use of force. On Thursday, Sgt. Hunter Foster, the Senatobia police officer who fired at Wiley, submitted his resignation from the department.
Foster’s departure comes amid a turbulent week for the Mississippi attorney general’s office and the Senatobia Police Department (SPD). After Fitch ruled the shooting a justified use of force on Monday, DarkHorse Press released bodycam footage from officers on the scene, along with Walmart surveillance video. On Thursday, the Mississippi Department of Public Safety issued additional footage, including the bodycam recording from Foster, which WLBT News obtained. Taken together, the footage reveals a sequence that is more complex than the streamlined narrative presented by Fitch and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation.
Surveillance footage shows Kohen’s mother, Vellesiya Wiley, and her friend sprinting toward their car from the Walmart entrance, with Wiley cradling the infant Kohen in her arms. Police officers quickly enter the frame in pursuit. After they reach the car, Wiley’s friend backs out of the parking space and collides with another parked car. The officers converge on the vehicle, drawing their weapons and shouting for them to stop. Foster places himself directly in front of the car, gun drawn and ready. The driver shifts into gear and accelerates toward the officers. According to his bodycam footage, Foster fires three shots as he steps aside and continues to point his weapon at the car as it passes him. It appears at least one of the rounds penetrated the front windshield, while others went through the passenger-side window, where Kohen was seated on his mother’s lap. The car then fled, with officers giving chase.
After reviewing the footage, Ben Crump, the Wiley family’s attorney, told reporters at a Thursday press conference that the officers “never ever should have drawn their weapons for a misdemeanor shoplifting allegation.”
“The shot from the side of the vehicle was not justified,” he added. “[Foster] was not in harm’s way when he shot from the side.” He asserts that the fatal shot to Kohen came from the side, aligning with an independent autopsy the family conducted.
Martin Zummach, attorney for Foster, told the Associated Press that the driver “tried to kill” his client and other officers at the scene, leaving Foster “no choice but to fire his weapon.” He said it was “strictly muscle memory” that led Foster to fire those additional shots, according to WSB News. “The one that went through the side glass that everybody’s going crazy about? That’s because she was moving so fast,” he said.
Regardless of whether the car was “moving so fast,” Foster, who stepped out of the car’s path, clearly had the option to refrain from firing. Yet instead of de-escalating the situation, the officers chose to draw their weapons and position themselves in front of a moving vehicle, transforming an incident involving an alleged shoplifter fleeing a misdemeanor into a high-stakes standoff.
