Newly Released 65-Page Report Reveals Conflicting Accounts in Fatal Shooting of 1-Year-Old Kohen Wiley

Newly released investigative records have exposed fresh details surrounding the fatal police shooting of 1-year-old Kohen Wiley in Mississippi, including conflicting accounts from officers about whether they were struck by the vehicle before a colleague opened fire.

The 65-page report, prepared by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (MBI), was mistakenly released to a local news organization in response to a public records request. The agency later provided a redacted version after realizing that the original documents contained information it had not intended to make public.

The records offer a more detailed account of the investigation into the June 14 shooting at a Walmart parking lot in Senatobia, where then-police Sergeant Hunter Foster fired three shots into a moving vehicle, killing Kohen and wounding the woman driving.

Kohen was sitting in the front passenger seat in the arms of his mother, Vellesiya Wiley.

The shooting began after officers were alerted that two women were running from the store following an alleged shoplifting incident involving diapers and baby clothes.

Body-camera footage previously released by state authorities showed officers approaching the vehicle with their guns drawn as it reversed out of a parking space and struck another parked car.

The vehicle then moved forward as Foster stood near its path. He fired three times, shattering the front passenger window. The car continued moving after the shots.

One of the most significant revelations in the newly released records concerns whether officers were actually hit by the vehicle.

Four officers reportedly told investigators that the car struck at least one officer as it attempted to leave. Foster said the vehicle was already striking him and a sheriff’s deputy to his right before he could move out of its path.

Another officer, Colson Sims, said he saw Foster bent over the hood after being struck. Tate County Sheriff’s Deputy Nathan Noe reported that the vehicle hit his left thigh while reversing and struck both him and Foster again as it accelerated forward.

However, the accounts have not resolved the dispute over what happened. The MBI’s initial public statement said the vehicle had almost struck an officer, while experts who reviewed the available body-camera and surveillance footage questioned whether the recordings definitively showed anyone being hit.

Another important question remains unanswered: whether officers knew a baby was inside the vehicle before Foster fired.

According to the report, none of the officers’ statements indicated that they had seen Kohen or knew a child was present. One officer said they only learned about the baby after injuries were reported.

Kohen’s mother has maintained that she was holding her son up to make officers aware that a child was inside the vehicle.

The records also provide more detail about what officers knew before the chase began. Although Foster’s attorney previously suggested that his client did not know the incident involved suspected shoplifting, officers’ statements referred to the women as suspected shoplifters.

The report does not, however, provide a definitive explanation for why the state ultimately decided that Foster’s use of deadly force was justified.

Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch announced in October that Foster would not face criminal charges, concluding that his actions were legally justified under the circumstances.

Foster resigned from the Senatobia Police Department shortly afterward, but his departure did not end the family’s efforts to seek accountability.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, representing Kohen’s family, has called for Foster to be permanently decertified as a law enforcement officer and urged the US Department of Justice to investigate the shooting.

The newly released report also indicates that charges were pending against Kohen’s mother and the woman who was driving the vehicle, Latoya Ferrell. The document does not specify the nature of those potential charges, and the records do not establish that they had been formally filed.

Importantly, the MBI confirmed that its investigation remained open and active despite the attorney general’s decision not to prosecute Foster. The agency declined to disclose exactly what aspects of the case or which individuals were still under investigation.

For Kohen’s family, the new records have added more detail but have not resolved the central questions surrounding the death of the little boy.

The state has cleared Foster of criminal wrongdoing, while the family continues to challenge that conclusion and seek federal scrutiny. With the investigation still active, the circumstances surrounding the shooting remain a source of intense dispute.

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