Veronica Robeson remembers witnessing the birth of her first and only grandchild, Kohen Wiley, and seeing the bond grow between him and her daughter.
Robeson is now trying to support the 1-year-old’s mother Vellesiya Wiley, who is experiencing panic attacks, cries every night and doesn’t eat or sleep. On June 14, Wiley held the child in her arms and witnessed as officers in Senatobia fired into the car they were in, hitting him in the rib area and striking the woman driver in the arm and thigh.
“I watched my baby take his first breath, and I watched my baby take his last breath,” Vellesiya Wiley said at a Monday news conference at Gospel Temple Church in Senatobia.
Vellesiya Wiley pictured with Kohen Wiley, who was her only child. Attorneys representing the 1-year-old’s family are calling for law enforcement in Senatobia to release body and dashboard camera footage and on Monday June 22, announced plans for an independent autopsy. They said both can help provide the family with answers. Credit: Ben Crump LawOther relatives and their legal team, national civil rights attorney Ben Crump and Memphis civil rights attorney Van Turner, joined the mother to call for justice and answers.
An independent autopsy, footage from law enforcement body and dashboard cameras and Walmart surveillance video can help provide the family answers and peace, the attorneys said.
“Transparency plus accountability equals trust,” Crump said.
Kohen’s funeral is set for Saturday, and the family is expecting a preliminary autopsy report Wednesday.
READ MORE: ‘Can’t get him back’: Family and community mourn toddler killed in Senatobia
Last week, Senatobia police and Tate county sheriff’s deputies received a call about shoplifting from the Walmart on U.S. 51. Police said officers saw two adults and a juvenile get into a car and try to drive away. Then police said the car drove in the direction of officers, leading them to shoot. The family and attorneys dispute this claim and allegations of shoplifting. The women in the car have not been charged, according to the family’s attorneys.
Wiley said she raised her baby and tried to show officers he was in the car, according to a video shared by Crump’s office on social media.
At the news conference, Crump raised issues about the law enforcement response, including how it did not make sense for an officer to shoot into a moving vehicle and use force because of an alleged theft of a box of diapers and a bottle of water.
He led the crowd in chanting “Baby Kohen’s life mattered” and “Baby Kohen’s life mattered more than a box of diapers” as he held up a pack of diapers in one hand.
After the child was shot and killed, the Senatobia Board of Aldermen placed an unnamed officer on administrative leave. Marquell Bridges, an advocate working with the Wiley family who attended the meeting, previously told Mississippi Today the board did not vote to terminate the officer or release footage.
After the meeting, hundreds of demonstrators went from Senatobia’s city hall to the Walmart where law enforcement used tear gas to disperse the crowd. Family and community members have set up a memorial at the site.
On Friday, two Memphis television news stations reported the name of the Senatobia officer as Hunter Foster. Officials with the Mississippi Department of Public Safety said the name was inadvertently disclosed through a public records request. Crump said his office has not received any police background history about the officer, but he encourages people with experiences of excessive force to contact the office.
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation took over the case and is expected to spend between six and nine months to complete an investigation, said DPS spokesperson Bailey Martin.
Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell acknowledged the tragic situation and said an independent investigation is underway with five agents assigned. He asked for patience during the process and said records will be made public once the investigation is complete.
“I want you to be assured that it will be a thorough investigation, and it will be one where transparency is there,” Tindell said last week during a news conference.
After MBI is finished, the case will be turned over to the attorney general’s office to review the officer’s use of force and present the case to a Tate County grand jury for any criminal charges.
To date, few Mississippi law enforcement officers have been criminally charged in police shootings. The attorney general’s office has also cleared a majority of officers for their use of force.
Senatobia community activists attended the Monday news conference, including Patrick Alexander, who said the police department has had other recent incidents of using force against residents.
Alexander asked some of those victims to stand, including a 10-year-old child taken into police custody for urinating outside a law firm parking lot in 2023. Another case he referenced was of a woman who said she was Tased and beaten in the same Walmart parking lot last year for alleged illegal use of a handicap parking spot.
Kohen’s paternal grandparents shared their loss and how they looked forward to sharing life moments with the child.
“They took away so much,” said Lasandra Williams, Kohen’s grandmother. “I was looking forward to graduation, the first day of school. So much they took away from us. That’s why we demand justice, because it’s not right.”
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