For months,
the residents of Senatobia, Mississippi, have waited with a mix of dread and anticipation for state authorities to decide what, if anything, they plan to do about the killing of Kohen Wiley. Ever since the 1-year-old child was shot by a white police officer outside a local Walmart in June, organizers have held protests and press conferences outside the town’s city hall to call for accountability — or even a simple acknowledgment — for the loss of the Black toddler.
On Monday, Senatobia residents got their answer: Officials plan to do nothing. “In this incident, the Attorney General’s Office found the use of force was justified,” Republican Mississippi AG Lynn Fitch
announced
in a three-sentence news release posted on her official website.
The announcement was met with anguish and outrage from people inside and outside the state. The Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus
demanded
more information. “Kohen Wiley was a baby,” said state Rep. Kabir Karriem, who chairs the MLBC. “He posed no threat. He deserved protection, and he deserved a future. His family is owed more than a conclusion. … Announcing that a review is complete does not fulfill the responsibility to explain how a police encounter ended with a baby dead.”
The attorney general’s decision followed a probe into the case by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which was “responsible for conducting a thorough and impartial investigation,” as Mississippi Department of Public Safety Press Secretary Alex Gibert wrote to The Intercept on Tuesday. The email said that the probe “remains open and active.” But in a subsequent phone call, Gibert said that the investigation “involving the officer is closed.”
Black Residents Warned of Abusive Cops for Years. Then Police Shot and Killed a Toddler.
Gibert reiterated what the agency has previously said: that body camera footage and other investigative materials will be made available through public records requests. But she add
… [more]
