A march through St. Paul last month carried the name of a one-year-old boy who never set foot in Minnesota. Kohen Wiley was shot and killed in a Walmart parking lot in Senatobia, Mississippi, in June, and on Oct. 25, adults and children gathered outside the governor’s mansion in solidarity with his family and others affected by police violence.
Kohen was riding in the front passenger seat on his mother Vellesiya Wiley’s lap on June 14 when Senatobia police sergeant Hunter Foster fired into the car, according to power1047.fm. Police had responded to a report of shoplifting at the Walmart, and after seeing the Wiley family leave on surveillance footage, officers pursued their car across the parking lot, per the original reporting from Unicorn Riot. The driver backed into another car before moving forward toward officers, that account states, and Foster fired through the car window, striking and killing Kohen. Another woman in the car was also shot, according to the same report.
After speakers addressed the crowd in St. Paul, the group marched along Lexington Avenue to the Center for Black Empowerment, chanting Kohen’s name along with the names of others who died in encounters with police, power1047.fm reported. The gathering connected Wiley’s death to a broader pattern of grief the organizers say stretches well beyond Mississippi’s borders.
A Years-Long Push Against Police Violence
The St. Paul march was organized by Families Supporting Families Against Police Violence, a group founded by activist Toshira Garraway Allen, according to Unicorn Riot. At a related gathering in September, the same organization and its annual Stolen Lives March drew families seeking accountability across state lines, as reported by the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder. Organizer Marquell Bridges said Wiley’s shooting had drawn comparisons to police violence cases in Minnesota, the outlet noted.
Garraway Allen has said that the killing of one person affects everyone, according to Unicorn Riot, and that Black women carry much of the burden of demanding justice and rebuilding after police kill or jail a loved one. She has also said Black women are standing up and fighting injustices, per the same account, and local Black women rallied residents in the Twin Cities to raise awareness and demand accountability for Wiley.
What The Body-Camera Footage Shows
Body-worn camera footage of the shooting was released in late October, and it included, for the first time, Foster’s own body-camera video, according to The Intercept. Foster resigned from the Senatobia Police Department the day the footage came out, the outlet reported, and Unicorn Riot noted that Senatobia’s interim police chief also resigned following the shooting.
Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch said the use of deadly force was justified, stating per the state investigation that the car had been driven toward officers, according to Unicorn Riot’s reporting. Action News 5 reported that the state’s investigation found the driver drove into officers and that the video supported that finding, as detailed by WMC Action News 5. The Intercept, however, reported that Foster fired the fatal shot into the passenger-side window after the car was already moving past him and posed no threat. Critics have argued that Foster was not at risk of being hit because he fired through the sedan’s passenger window, according to Unicorn Riot.
Conflicting Accounts And An Open Investigation
The dispute over what happened in those final seconds has not been resolved. Four officers said in statements that the car struck at least one of them, while experts who reviewed the body-camera and surveillance footage found no definitive evidence that any officer was struck, though the car came close to several of them, according to Mississippi Today.
Despite Fitch’s decision not to prosecute Foster, a spokesperson for the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation said the agency’s investigation remains open and active, Mississippi Today reported. CNN has reported that a string of incidents has eroded trust between the Senatobia police department and the city’s Black residents, including the firing of another officer two years earlier for arresting a Black 10-year-old for urinating in public, according to CNN. A federal lawsuit had also alleged that Foster falsified a report about a 2019 parking-lot confrontation; that case, filed against Foster and other officers, was settled for an undisclosed amount in 2022, per Mississippi Today’s earlier reporting.
For Twin Cities residents who turned out at the governor’s mansion and marched down Lexington Avenue, the loss of a one-year-old shot by police in Mississippi still landed close to home. Organizers say the march was one more link in an ongoing, cross-state effort to keep pressure on officials as the investigation into Kohen Wiley’s death continues.
