{"id":41737,"date":"2026-06-17T22:47:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T22:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/41737\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T22:47:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T22:47:16","slug":"anger-mounts-over-police-killing-of-1-year-old-kohen-wiley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/41737\/","title":{"rendered":"Anger Mounts Over Police Killing of 1-Year-Old Kohen Wiley"},"content":{"rendered":"

SENATOBIA, Miss.\u2014People scattered in a Walmart parking lot on Tuesday as law enforcement officers, who were wearing gas masks and lined up under the store\u2019s grocery-side entrance, unleashed tear gas<\/a> on the crowd that had gathered to protest the police killing of 1-year-old Kohen Wiley<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Two days earlier on June 14, the young Black child died after a Senatobia police officer fired into a moving car, killing him and injuring the driver. Officers, who had been responding to a call alleging that someone had tried to steal a box of diapers, claimed that the car was driving toward the officer when he fired\u2014a claim that some witnesses have disputed.<\/p>\n

\"KohenA Mississippi police officer shot 1-year-old Kohen Wiley, killing him, in response to a shoplifting call at the Walmart in Senatobia, Miss., on Sunday, June 14, 2026. Photo courtesy Kohen Wiley family<\/p>\n

On Tuesday evening, the mayor and the Senatobia Board of Aldermen placed the officer on administrative leave. He has not been publicly identified.<\/p>\n

Hours earlier, 200 people gathered about a mile away from the Walmart in downtown Senatobia outside City Hall, voicing exasperated anguish over the child\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Leon White, a Senatobia resident since 1999, raised a protest sign that read, \u201cThe People Demand: End to Police Terror.\u201d Along a section of Front Street, cornered off by police with snipers perched atop a row of vintage storefronts that include a soda shop and pharmacy, he walked with others angrily shouting, \u201cNo Justice, No Peace\u201d in one accord and yelling profanities aimed at police.<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

\t\tLeon White hoists a sign outside Senatobia\u2019s City Hall while police snipers monitor the crowd from the rooftops of commercial business buildings on June 16, 2026, during a protest over a deadly police shooting. White said the police actions yielded an organized protest over \u201ca problem that has been building for a long time.\u201d Photo by Andrew Bell\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

White said that the city\u2019s residents\u2019 tension and distrustful relations with police, \u201chas been a problem that has been building for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor many years, the police force was fine, but in recent years\u2014I don\u2019t know why\u2014it\u2019s become a big problem,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He blames it partly, but sharply, on inadequate safety training. He added that Senatobia does not have a crime problem. Indeed, Senatobia\u2019s crime rate is below the national average<\/a> and one of the lowest crime rates in Mississippi. The city has a population of around 8,500 residents, around 40% of whom are Black<\/a>. Its police force is composed of about 30 officers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are like a big family here, and people come from all over the immediate area to shop,\u201d White said.<\/p>\n

Video Evidence Won\u2019t Be Released During Investigation<\/p>\n

Two blocks away from City Hall on the steps of the Tate County Courthouse, Mississippi Department of Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell sought to calm the furor, vowing transparency once the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation finishes investigating Kohen Wiley\u2019s shooting.<\/p>\n

\"AMississippi Department of Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell spoke to reporters and a small crowd of Senatobia residents about the investigation into the police shooting of Kohen Wiley on the steps of the Tate County Courthouse on June 16, 2026. Photo by Andrew Bell<\/p>\n

While protesters heckled him, Tindell said that MBI will thoroughly review information provided by witnesses and the videos that captured the shooting, including officers\u2019 vest cameras and Walmart security camera footage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to us (investigators) to interview witnesses without the threat of intimidation,\u201d the commissioner said. \u201cIt\u2019s important that we keep civility during this process so we can get to the bottom of it and analyze all the evidence and ultimately make it available to you all.\u201d<\/p>\n

He did not provide any new details on the shooting itself. Tindell said five MDPS agents have been assigned to investigate the tragic shooting in coordination with the state\u2019s attorney general\u2019s office. He said it would be up to local law enforcement to determine whether the allegations of shoplifting were credible; Wiley\u2019s family has denied allegations of shoplifting.<\/p>\n

Tindell, in response to a reporter\u2019s question, said no video evidence will be released until the conclusion of the investigation \u201cbecause sometimes when video evidence is released early, witnesses won\u2019t come forward because they feel like the case has been closed at that point.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018It Needs to Stop\u2019<\/p>\n

Shirley Hardin, who lives in nearby Como, Mississippi, said poor relations between residents and Senatobia police go back years. She pointed to Senatobia police\u2019s arrest of an 11-year-old boy for urinating outside the jail in 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd now this happened with the baby,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"AFelicia Jackson carried a sign calling for justice for the family of Kohen Wiley with a crowd of concerned and angry residents who gathered across the street from City Hall in Senatobia, Miss., to demand answers on June 16, 2026.\u00a0 Photo by Andrew Bell<\/p>\n

Bettersten Wade was so troubled about Kohen Wiley\u2019s shooting that she drove from her home in Jackson, Mississippi, to participate in the protest. She\u2019s no stranger to losing loved ones after encounters with police. A jury convicted a Jackson police officer in the 2019 death of her brother George Robinson, though an appeals court overturned the conviction in 2024<\/a>. Her son, Dexter Wade, died after a Jackson police cruiser struck him in March 2023, and she searched for him for months until August 2023, when she learned that he had died and the city had buried him in an unmarked pauper\u2019s grave<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in the 21st Century, not the 1960s, and we are still dealing with unjustified police violence,\u201d Bettersten Wade told the Mississippi Free Press.\u00a0 \u201cWe are mad and exhausted, but we won\u2019t go away quietly into the night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Britney Fallon, from Olive Branch, Mississippi, said many residents just want justice for the child. Many others are upset at what they believe is a trend \u201cbecause things have constantly been going on like this down here in town in Mississippi. And it needs to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe could have easily been your child, my child, anybody\u2019s child,\u201d Fallon continued. \u201cWe want the same justice for this child that would be served down to our African-American generation if it was one of us. This has to end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ashton Pittman contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

Follow the Mississippi Free Press\u2019 coverage of Kohen Wiley\u2019s death and read past stories here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mississippi Free Press stories are always free because we believe everyone should have access to quality journalism. Donations from readers like you make that possible. Please click here to give to help sustain and grow vital, people-over-power journalism for Mississippians<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Readers can sign up for our free newsletters here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SENATOBIA, Miss.\u2014People scattered in a Walmart parking lot on Tuesday as law enforcement officers, who were wearing gas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[8,17422,23623,23624,9,23625,7185,23626,23627,7,917],"class_list":["post-41737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-top-stories","tag-headlines","tag-home-featured","tag-kohen-wiley","tag-mississippi-delta","tag-news","tag-police-violence","tag-policing","tag-senatobia","tag-tate-county","tag-top-stories","tag-violence"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116767886254485755","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}