The people accused of the theft were his mother and his aunt, alleged to have taken diapers from a Walmart.
This week, law enforcement in Mississippi opened fire on a moving vehicle as they attempted to halt a suspect on the run, resulting in the death of a one-year-old boy and leaving his aunt hospitalized.
The events are heartbreakingly sad, and even more infuriating because the response began with a complaint about diaper theft.
Sunday, authorities were dispatched over a suspected shoplifter at a Walmart in Senatobia, Mississippi. “Officials said they saw two adults and a young child fleeing the store and climbing into a car,” Fox13 reported. Video from cellphones captured officers pursuing on foot as the car pulled away.
“Authorities indicate that officers tried to halt the vehicle, but the driver moved toward officers and nearly hit one of them,” WREG reported, citing the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (MBI). “One officer then discharged their weapon, according to the MBI, and the car sped off.”
The car subsequently reached a local hospital, where 1-year-old Kohen Wiley was pronounced dead. Wiley’s family said the other passengers in the car were his mother and his aunt, who remained in critical condition.
A witness later recalled seeing two women exit the store, one cradling the child and the other holding a box of diapers. It remains unclear whether theft occurred, but regardless, stealing diapers does not justify an armed confrontation.
In Mississippi, shoplifting is a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine or a few months in jail—hardly anything that warrants deadly force. Investigators claim the suspects drove their car at one of the officers, but so far, there is no evidence to confirm or deny that assertion. The cellphone footage shows them driving away, but it does not reveal the car swerving toward an officer or the moment of the shooting.
There is reason to doubt that the officers faced the danger they described. In January 2026, ICE officer Jonathan Ross shot and killed Minneapolis motorist Reneé Good. Kristi Noem, then the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, claimed Good had “weaponized her vehicle” by trying to hit him with her car, though footage at the scene indicated Good was attempting to drive around Ross, who had positioned himself in front of her vehicle even as agents told her to drive away.
There is also little clarity about why the Mississippi officers pursued in the manner they did. The MBI states that officers saw the suspects leave the store and into their car, yet chose to pursue on foot. Investigators also admit there was a child in the car, yet they persisted in pursuing and even drew their weapons.
There are no national standards for foot pursuits, and few police departments even have formal rules. A 2015 survey of several hundred law enforcement agencies in the United States found that “the vast majority (86% or 414) indicated they did not” have a written policy on foot pursuits.
Among the departments that do maintain written policies, the actions of the Mississippi officers would not pass muster.
In its foot-pursuit policy, the Madison Police Department in Madison, Wisconsin, cautions officers to “evaluate the risk involved to themselves, other officers, the subject, and the community to balance that risk with the need to pursue and immediately apprehend the subject.” Potential factors include “whether the subject is armed or dangerous,” “risk to officers and/or the community posed by the subject,” and “ability to apprehend the subject at a later date.”
By each of those criteria, an officer should refrain from pursuing. There was no indication the suspects were armed or posed a risk to the community, and anyone near enough to see the license plate could compute the risk and identify the driver.
The Stanford Center for Racial Justice at Stanford Law School concurs, presenting a “model use of force policy” that for an officer to “initiate a foot pursuit,” he must have not only reasonable suspicion that a crime has occurred, but he must determine that “the benefit of immediately apprehending the person outweighs the risks to public and officer safety.”
Moreover, pursuing a car on foot defies common sense. And petty shoplifting hardly seems to justify a chase, whether on foot or in a vehicle.
Tragically, police too often resort to violence in their pursuit of someone suspected of shoplifting.
In February 2023, officers assigned to a mall in Tysons Corner, Virginia, responded to a report of a man shoplifting sunglasses from Nordstrom. When he fled, they chased him into the woods, drew their weapons, and fired, killing him.
In 2024, a jury convicted one of the officers of recklessly handling a firearm, while acquitting him of manslaughter. A judge sentenced him to three years in prison as part of a five-year term, but in January, outgoing Gov. Glenn Youngkin granted the officer an “absolute pardon.”
In October 2025, a security guard in Albuquerque shot and killed a man attempting to shoplift less than $100 worth of merchandise from Spirit Halloween.
The death of Kohen Wiley is an unimaginable tragedy. Even more troubling is that it arose from officers showing a blatant disregard for his safety, treating a suspicion of misdemeanor shoplifting as enough to justify lethal force.
Natalie Foster
I’m a political writer focused on making complex issues clear, accessible, and worth engaging with. From local dynamics to national debates, I aim to connect facts with context so readers can form their own informed views. I believe strong journalism should challenge, question, and open space for thoughtful discussion rather than amplify noise.