Heartbreaking Questions Grow After Baby Kohen Is Fatally Shot Outside a Mississippi Walmart 

The death of 1-year-old Kohen Wiley has turned a Walmart parking lot in Senatobia, Mississippi, into the center of a painful demand for answers. 

What began as a police response to a reported shoplifting call on June 14 has become a tragedy that now stretches far beyond one family. Kohen’s relatives are grieving a child they say should still be alive, and their attorneys are pressing investigators to release the evidence that could show exactly what happened in the moments before an officer opened fire. 

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Kohen’s family, said Monday that the family plans to conduct an independent autopsy. For the family, that step is not just about confirming that Kohen was shot. It is about learning what the bullet path may reveal, where the officer may have been standing, and whether the official explanation matches the physical evidence. 

A Family Searching For The Full Story 

Authorities have said officers responded to a shoplifting call at the Walmart in Senatobia, a small city in northwestern Mississippi, about 40 miles south of Memphis. According to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, officers encountered two adults allegedly leaving the store with a child and getting into a vehicle. 

Investigators have said officers attempted to stop the vehicle and that an officer fired when the driver allegedly drove toward them. Kohen was killed, and an adult in the vehicle was critically injured. 

Kohen’s family and attorneys are challenging the public to slow down and look at the details. According to Ben Crump Law, Kohen was in the vehicle with his mother and a family friend at the time of the shooting. The family’s attorneys have said the alleged shoplifting accusation involved diapers, and they say the woman accused has not been charged. 

That detail has become one of the most disturbing parts of the story for many people following the case. A call about possible shoplifting, the family argues, should never have ended with a baby dead. 

Why The Independent Autopsy Matters 

At Monday’s press event in Senatobia, Crump said the family does not want to rely only on the official investigation to understand how Kohen died. He said an independent autopsy could help verify the entry and exit wounds and give the family more clarity about the shooting. 

The question is not simply whether Kohen was shot. The question is what the physical evidence may show about the angle of the gunfire. 

If the bullet trajectory suggests the officer fired from in front of the vehicle, that could support one set of facts. If it suggests something different, that could raise new questions about whether the officer was in immediate danger when the shot was fired. That is why the family believes the autopsy could become a key part of the case. 

Crump said the family hopes to have preliminary autopsy results by July 1, after Kohen’s funeral services. 

For Kohen’s mother, Vellesiya Wiley, the pain is almost impossible to put into words. Speaking at the press event, she said she watched her baby take his first breath and his last. That one sentence captured the unbearable human weight behind the legal language, public statements, and police investigation. 

The Fight Over Video Evidence 

The family is also demanding the release of the video from the shooting. Crump has called for authorities to release body camera footage, dash camera footage, and any Walmart surveillance video that may show the encounter. 

That demand is now at the center of the case. 

Investigators have said the vehicle drove in the direction of officers and nearly struck one of them. The family wants the public to see the video that either confirms or challenges that account. 

Crump argued that transparency is the only way to rebuild trust. His message was direct: if the official version is true, show the video. 

Mississippi Department of Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell, who oversees the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, has promised an independent investigation. He said multiple agents are working on the case, gathering evidence and witness statements, and that investigators were also working to obtain security footage from Walmart. 

Tindell has asked the public for patience, saying the investigation must be completed properly. He also said body camera footage will be released once the investigation is finished. 

For the family and many in the community, however, waiting is painful. Every day without video leaves more room for anger, suspicion, and grief. 

A Community Left Shaken 

The shooting has sparked protests and public outrage in Senatobia. For many residents, Kohen’s death has become more than a single police shooting. It has become a test of whether authorities will be open about what happened and whether the public will be allowed to judge the evidence for itself. 

The officer involved has been placed on administrative leave, officials said. Authorities have not publicly released every detail of the shooting, citing the ongoing investigation. 

Walmart has said it is saddened by what happened at its Senatobia store and is cooperating with law enforcement as the investigation continues. 

Still, the central question remains unanswered in the eyes of Kohen’s family: why did a police response to an alleged shoplifting incident escalate to gunfire with a baby inside the vehicle? 

Crump has questioned why officers did not simply take down the license plate number if they believed the vehicle was leaving the scene. That question has resonated with many people because it goes to the heart of proportionality. Was deadly force the only option in that moment, or was there another way to handle the situation? 

What Comes Next 

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is expected to present its findings to the state attorney general’s office after completing its review. Until then, the family is building its own path toward answers through an independent autopsy and public pressure to release the video. 

For now, Kohen Wiley’s name has become a painful symbol of a case that many believe demands complete transparency. 

His family is not asking the public to guess. They are asking investigators to show what happened. 

That is what makes this case so powerful and so heartbreaking. A 1-year-old child is gone. A mother is grieving. A community is watching. And the difference between trust and outrage may depend on whether the evidence is released clearly, fully, and soon.