Video Analysis: How Fatal Shooting of Kohen Wiley Unfolded

On June 14, a tip regarding two women running out of a Senatobia, Mississippi, Walmart escalated into a fatal police shooting within 25 seconds, leaving 1-year-old Kohen Wiley dead in a car seat. Mississippi Today published a frame-by-frame breakdown of the surveillance and body-worn camera footage, detailing how the confrontation unfolded in the store’s parking lot.

From Store Entrance to Parking Lot Confrontation

The sequence began just after 2 p.m. inside a small video monitor room near the Walmart entrance, where a store employee interrupted police officers discussing an unrelated incident. Outside, two women ran toward a gray sedan. Latoya Ferrell carried a box of diapers and got behind the steering wheel, while Vellesiya Wiley climbed into the passenger seat holding her 1-year-old son, Kohen.

Surveillance footage shows no indication that officers knew who the women were, why they were running, or that a child was inside the vehicle. An incident report filed later by Senatobia officers stated that baby clothes and a large box of Pampers Easy Ups diapers were stolen through “under ringing,” a self-checkout method where an item is skipped or a cheaper barcode is scanned. Neither woman has been charged with a crime.

Vellesiya Wiley shares her account of the events that led to the tragic death of her 1-year-old son, Kohen Wiley, during a police encounter in Senatobia, Mississippi. The officer who fatally shot Kohen has been placed on administrative leave, but for Kohen’s family, leave is not… pic.twitter.com/f8EK4WTCL7

— https://x.com/AttorneyCrump/status/2067365814240411788

As officers ran toward the sedan, it backed out of its parking space and hit an SUV before momentarily stopping. Five officers converged on the vehicle with drawn weapons, shouting for the driver to stop. A Tate County Sheriff’s Office deputy was the first to draw a weapon, pointing it downward before holstering it as the car reversed. Senatobia police officer Hunter Foster drew his gun 20 seconds after the initial employee alert, becoming the first officer to aim directly at the moving vehicle.

Expert Analysis Shows Car Moved Toward Officer

Forensic reconstruction expert Jeremy Bauer reviewed body-worn camera footage from Foster and two other officers. Bauer noted that the car was still reversing when Foster initially pointed his firearm at it. As the driver accelerated forward, turning the front wheels left and away from Foster, the vehicle approached his leg. Foster fired a single shot through the windshield roughly 25 seconds after the store employee’s alert, followed by at least two more shots into the side window.

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Bauer’s analysis indicated that Foster’s right leg was positioned in front of the bumper and his left leg beside the car when the first shot was fired. However, Bauer observed that Foster’s balance remained undisrupted, stating there was “no definitive evidence of an impact.” It remains unclear from the videos whether any other officers close to the vehicle were struck, though Bauer noted one officer braced a hand on the hood.

Veronica Roberson, Kohen’s grandmother, stated that officials with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation told her a sheriff’s deputy standing in front of the car was struck. Walmart surveillance footage shows a deputy jumping out of the way, though the lower frame rate makes precise movement difficult to determine. Other camera angles show the car veering close as the deputy lifted a leg and braced a hand against the vehicle.

An analysis of body-worn camera recordings revealed occasional fractions-of-a-second audio mismatches with the video. Foster’s camera exhibited a larger lag of less than one-third of a second, prompting Mississippi Today to mute the audio from his specific device.

Mississippi Declines Criminal Charges as Foster Resigns

Last week, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch announced that the state would not pursue criminal charges against Foster, ruling that his actions were justified because he fired as the car moved toward two officers. That decision followed a state investigation heavily reliant on the newly released video footage.

LIVE | Ben Crump, Kohen Wiley's family address released video of Senatobia police shooting

The fallout extended beyond the attorney general’s decision. On June 16, two days after the shooting, the Senatobia Board of Aldermen placed Foster on administrative leave, according to city meeting minutes. Foster formally resigned from the department last week. Separately, Darkhorse Press published leaked footage on Oct. 20 showing a clip from outside the hospital where Kohen was pronounced dead, in which Foster asked whether the child had been hit, using an expletive and stating he had not seen a baby in the lap. That hospital clip was omitted from the state’s official release.