A day before Kohen Wiley’s family is set to lay the 1-year-old child to rest, organizers plan to march in Senatobia, Mississippi, on Friday, June 26, to demand accountability for the police shooting that left the child dead in a Walmart parking lot.
A Senatobia police officer shot into the passenger side of a car where Wiley’s mother, Vellesiya Wiley, was holding the child on June 14, hitting him in his ribcage and killing him and injuring the woman who was driving the car.
“ I watched my baby take his first breath, and I watched my baby take his last breath,” the boy’s mother said during a press conference at a Senatobia church on Monday.
Friday’s march will begin in Senatobia at 10 a.m. at 4930 U.S. Highway 51, about half a mile from the Senatobia Walmart. Organizers with the Building Bridges Coalition also plan to hold a town hall at Fairway Christian Church in Senatobia from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
The keynote speaker at the town hall will be Fred Hampton Jr. of the Black Panther Party Cubs. Mississippi civil-rights activist Marquell Bridges will moderate the town hall, with panelists including Mississippi Center for Justice Deputy Director of Impact Litigation Paloma Wu; Baba AKILI with Black Lives Matter Grassroots Rapid Response; Melanie Marie, a political organizer from Ferguson, Missouri; and JULIAN Executive Director Jill Colleen Jefferson.
“His life mattered. His future mattered. We will not be silent,” reads a #JusticeForKohen poster advertising the events.
On the day of the shooting, police were responding to a call alleging the theft of a pack of diapers, but no shoplifting charges have been filed. Vellesiya Wiley has said her friend, who was driving the car, paid for the diapers at Walmart’s self-checkout. The Mississippi Department of Public Safety has claimed the officer who fired the shot was responding to a threat.
“Upon arrival, officers encountered two subjects and a juvenile child fleeing from the store into a vehicle,” a June 14 statement from MDPS said. “Officers attempted to stop the vehicle, but the driver drove in the direction of the officers, almost striking one.”
Vellesiya Wiley and some witnesses have disputed the police account and called for video of the shooting to be released. MDPS says bodycam and security camera footage of the shooting will not be released while the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which MDPS oversees, investigates the shooting.
The Wiley family and their lawyers took umbrage at MDPS’ use of the term “juvenile.”
“He was a one-year-old infant baby. He was not a juvenile,” civil rights attorney Ben Crump said at Monday’s press conference.
Last week, a public records request by Memphis Action 5 News identified Senatobia Police Department Sergeant Hunter Foster as one of the officers present at the shooting. The documents did not identify who fired the weapon.
Kohen Wiley’s funeral service will be held at 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 27, at Hosanna Church in Pope, Mississippi. A vigil will take place in Sardis, Mississippi, at 6 p.m. that evening.
Organizers also plan a community engagement event for Sunday and a neighborhood cookout, but have not released the exact details of the time and location.
Follow the Mississippi Free Press’ coverage of Kohen Wiley and read past stories here.
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