Since the Mississippi attorney general, Lynn Fitch, announced on Monday that the police shooting of Kohen Wiley, a one-year-old baby, “was justified”, footage of the shooting has been made public. It was first reported by Darkhorse Press, a Mississippi outlet.
On Thursday, attorneys Ben Crump and Van Turner, who are representing the Wiley family, held a press conference at the Senatobia Church of Christ, in Senatobia, Mississippi. The press conference came shortly after members of the family were able to view footage of the shooting.
“The word ‘justified’ have haunted me since Monday,’” Veronica Roberson, Wiley’s maternal grandmother, said during the press conference. She fought back tears as she spoke. “I went to work and I had to find out through news sources… no one reached out to the family. A single call, a heads up, anything to prepare us for what we was about to face.”
Roberson said that the leaked videos of the shooting from multiple outlets were “slaps in the face”. In the footage, she said, five officers with guns drawn descended on a car with two women, Vellesiya Wiley, the baby’s mother, and Latoya Ferrell, a friend, and Kohen Wiley.
Crump called the footage “excessive from the very start”, and said that the officers approached the women and baby with guns drawn. According to initial reports, officers were responding to a shoplifting call. Allegedly, Wiley and Ferrell stole a pack of diapers.
“We’re the most prosperous nation in the world and we’re going to draw guns to shoot people over misdemeanor allegations of baby diapers?” Crump said.
Crump noted that neither woman was ever arrested for shoplifting. Even if they had been, shoplifting is a misdemeanor, which does not qualify for the death sentence, he said.
“After what I’ve seen today, I’m having a difficult time understanding the word ‘justified,’” Lasandra Williams, Wiley’s paternal grandmother, said. “I don’t understand how it’s okay for someone to take a sweet, innocent soul – Lord knows I miss him so much.”
Crump and Turner were joined by both of Wiley’s grandmothers, his father and representatives of Senatobia Committee for Accountability and Building Bridges Coalition, local civil rights organizations. Crump said that the footage would officially be released later this afternoon by investigators.
Turner and Crump are calling for a federal investigation into the shooting.
Next Sunday, 1 November, would be Wiley’s second birthday.
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