Police officer who fatally shot a 1-year-old boy in a Walmart parking lot in Mississippi has resigned.
The police officer who fatally shot a 1-year-old boy in a Walmart parking lot in Mississippi has resigned from the department, the city’s mayor confirmed on Friday, days after state authorities cleared him of criminal wrongdoing. Sgt Hunter Foster shot and killed Kohen Wiley on June 14 while responding to an incident outside a Walmart store in Senatobia, about 65 km south of Memphis, Tennessee.
Officers were at the store for an unrelated incident when a Walmart employee alerted them that two women were running from the store, according to an investigation report cited by AP. The footage shows Kohen’s mother, Vellesiya Wiley, holding the child as she and another woman enter a vehicle in the parking lot. Five officers approach the car with their guns drawn. The vehicle reverses, crashes into a parked car and then accelerates forward.
The state released body-camera footage of the shooting on Thursday, showing the moments leading up to the fatal encounter.
He said the fatal shot came from the side of the car, disputing the claim that Foster was in imminent danger. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents the child’s family, has also challenged the officer’s account. An independent autopsy commissioned by the family reached the same conclusion. Kohen’s family and their legal team have called for a federal investigation into the shooting.
At a news conference on Thursday, Crump criticised the officers’ actions and described them as excessive.
The Mississippi attorney general’s office concluded earlier this week that Foster’s use of force was justified after a months-long investigation, the Associated Press reported.