Selective angles of surveillance footage from the police shooting of Kohen Wiley leaked late Tuesday, showing multiple views of the fatal encounter in the parking lot of a Senatobia Walmart on June 14, 2026. The leak comes days after Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch announced that the shooting was a “justified” use of force.
Critically, the leaker appears to have left out the most significant footage of all: the body camera worn by Hunter Foster, identified as the officer who fired the shots into a vehicle carrying 1-year-old Kohen Wiley, his mother, Vellesiya Wiley and the driver, Latoya Ferrell. Kohen was killed and Ferrell was seriously injured. Foster was the only officer included in an incident report regarding the shooting and the only officer placed on leave, but DPS has not formally identified him as the shooter.
Mississippi Department of Public Safety press secretary Alex Gibert confirmed to the Mississippi Free Press Tuesday afternoon that Foster’s bodycam footage does exist and was part of the investigation into the shooting. Gibert said that DPS intends to release all available footage from the shooting within a matter of days, after allowing Kohen Wiley’s family to review the video first.
Footage From Officer Who Fired Shots Still Pending
Darkhorse Press, the news blog that first obtained the video, did not disclose where it obtained the leaked footage, but claimed that it did not possess Foster’s bodycam footage. The compilation includes footage from two officer-worn body cameras as well as surveillance footage from the Walmart’s exterior and entrance. It also includes body camera footage from officers waiting outside the hospital where Kohen was declared dead.
In the body camera videos, a Walmart employee warns a cohort of five Senatobia police officers, all reviewing footage in a security room near the entrance, that “two people are running.” Immediately, the officers flood out of the security room and surround a gray sedan, just beginning to pull out of a parking space.
Warning: this footage contains violent imagery.
As the officers command the driver of the car to stop, the car backs up, collides with a parked vehicle, and then accelerates, sharply turning left. Foster first attempts to place a hand on the hood of the car, then sidesteps, discharging his firearm multiple times through the windshield and right-side window of the car. An independent autopsy of Wiley found that he had been shot through the side.
The video repeats several times, interspersed with angles of surveillance footage from the Walmart itself, including an overhead view. After multiple repetitions from different cameras, it cuts to body camera footage taken outside the hospital where Wiley was declared dead. Foster is visible there, pacing near a patrol SUV, apparently shortly after being told he’d shot a child.
“I didn’t even see a baby in her f–kin’ lap,” Foster remarks.
Missing from the footage is, at a minimum, Foster’s body camera recording as well as the time between the gunfire in the parking lot and the police arrival at the hospital, where Foster has the brief exchange with another officer.
Case Remains Open
The killing of Kohen Wiley caused national outrage amid a year of extraordinary scrutiny on Mississippi.
In Mississippi, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, under DPS, is the mandatory investigator of most police shootings. Shortly after Wiley was shot, DPS released an initial statement which asserted that officers had been responding to a shoplifting call when they encountered Ferrell, Wiley and her son.
“Law enforcement officers responded to a shoplifting call at Walmart on U.S. 51. Upon arrival, officers encountered two subjects and a juvenile child fleeing from the store into a vehicle. Officers attempted to stop the vehicle, but the driver drove in the direction of the officers, almost striking one,” the statement read in part. “An officer then discharged their weapon and the vehicle fled the scene. The subjects arrived at a local hospital where one juvenile child in the vehicle was pronounced deceased, and another subject had critical injuries. No law enforcement officers received any serious physical injury.”
Witnesses said the three had exited the Walmart with a box of diapers. As of Wednesday morning, Oct. 21, neither Wiley nor Ferrell have been charged with any crime. Wiley has challenged claims that she was shoplifting at all. It is unclear from the video presented thus far what the officers were investigating when they were called out from the security room.
Attorney General Fitch’s Monday announcement likely means no Senatobia police officer will face charges for the shooting of Kohen Wiley. DPS has not, however, closed the case entirely. This leaves the door open for possible charges against both Latoya Ferrell and Vellesiya Wiley, Kohen Wiley’s mother. Speaking in a social media video shortly after the death of her son, Wiley said she’d held Kohen up to ensure officers could see that a child was in the car.
In July, Mississippi Today reported multiple instances of allegations of police misconduct against Foster, including accusations of making a racist comment to a coworker days before Wiley’s shooting. In two cases at his previous jobs in law enforcement, Foster was named in lawsuits alleging abuses against suspects. One of those cases was dismissed; the other concluded with a confidential settlement.
Just under two months ago, after reports from The New York Times, Mississippi Today and Verite included racist text messages from former Senatobia Police Chief Hal Vanderford, the Senatobia Board of Aldermen fired Vanderford.
Follow the Mississippi Free Press’ coverage of Kohen Wiley and read past stories here.
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