The police officer who shot and killed 1-year-old Kohen Wiley while chasing two women accused of shoplifting was justified in shooting at their car as it pulled out of a Walmart parking space in June, the Mississippi Attorney General’s office announced on Monday.
The decision came four months after Hunter Foster, an officer with the Senatobia Police Department, was placed on leave while state authorities investigated his actions. Although he has not been directly named as the officer who fired, Mr. Foster is the only officer among those present that day who was placed on leave.
A letter from Attorney General Lynn Fitch, posted online Monday by the city of Senatobia, stated that her office would not file charges against Mr. Foster or any other officers because there was “insufficient evidence of criminal conduct.” It was not immediately clear if Mr. Foster would return to work in Senatobia, a small city about 30 minutes south of Memphis.
In a brief statement to the public, Ms. Fitch’s office announced it had completed its review and “found the use of force was justified.”
Many details of the incident remained unknown. State authorities did not say if or when they would release body cam footage or other surveillance video of the incident.
It was also unclear what other evidence state authorities had considered. Several witnesses, including Vellesiya Wiley, who was holding her son Kohen when the officer shot him, said as recently as this month that they had never been interviewed by investigators. Ms. Wiley also denied having taken anything from the store, and said she believed the woman she was with had paid for her items at self-checkout.
Video taken by bystanders around the time of the shooting shows at least five officers on foot intercepting a slow-moving vehicle in the close quarters of a parking lot on a Sunday afternoon. The officers, responding to allegations that a woman had stolen a box of diapers and baby clothes, surrounded the car. None of the video shared publicly so far clearly shows the car, or the officers’ actions, when the shots were fired.
Ms. Wiley said she had been holding her son in her arms in the front passenger seat when the driver, Latoya Ferrell, tried to back out of a space and then drive forward. Both women are Black. Mr. Foster is white.
In the hours after the shooting, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation issued a statement saying police had fired at a vehicle when it drove toward an officer, “almost striking” one.
Ben Crump, a lawyer for the Wiley family, reiterated his calls Monday for law enforcement officials to release video of the incident.
“How can anyone accept that conclusion when Kohen’s family and the public still have not been allowed to see the body-camera footage?” Mr. Crump said in a statement.
“If the footage supports the state’s decision, release it,” Mr. Crump added. “We will not stop fighting until this family gets the truth.”
Reached by phone on Monday, Ms. Wiley wept over the decision.
Martin Zummach, a lawyer for Mr. Foster, said Ms. Fitch’s decision was “expected” and “overdue.”
Veronica Roberson, Kohen Wiley’s grandmother, said on Monday she had learned of the attorney general’s decision when she logged onto Facebook. No state or local law enforcement official had reached out to the family, she said.
Mr. Foster, 33, is a former member of the U.S. Army National Guard and the son of a longtime law enforcement officer. Before joining the Senatobia department in March 2025, Mr. Foster made a name for himself at the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Office, where he won a state award for issuing the most DUI citations of any law enforcement officer in Mississippi in back-to-back years, 2023 and 2024.
Mr. Foster was promoted to sergeant six months into his term at Senatobia. In the last year, he was twice accused of directing racially offensive language toward co-workers on the job, including referring to a Black officer with an expletive, Mississippi Today reported.
Senatobia’s former police chief, Harold Vanderford, who took no action against Mr. Foster in either case, was fired in September, less than two weeks after The New York Times, Mississippi Today and Verite News revealed he had routinely used racist slurs in private texts with a colleague.
Angelica Maze, a Black woman who was serving as a lieutenant in the department, was named Mr. Vanderford’s interim replacement. She did not respond on Monday to a request seeking comment on the attorney general’s decision.
The city of Senatobia released a brief statement on Facebook on Monday, saying it “continues to extend its deepest sympathy to Kohen Wiley’s family and all those affected by this tragedy.”
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