Senatobia, Mississippi police officer fatally shot 1-year-old Kohen Wiley while firing into a car during a shoplifting call

On June 14, 2026, a Senatobia, Mississippi police officer responding to a shoplifting call at a Walmart fired a shotgun into a car in the parking lot, fatally striking 1-year-old Kohen Wiley, who was seated in the front of the vehicle with his mother. A family friend in the car was critically injured. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation said officers had tried to stop the car but that the driver drove toward an officer, nearly striking one, prompting the officer to open fire.

The child's mother, who was not involved in the reported shoplifting and has not been charged, said she had told officers a baby was in the car and that the vehicle was backing away — not moving toward police — when the shots were fired. Civil rights attorneys Ben Crump and Van Turner, representing the family, disputed the department's vehicle-as-weapon account and demanded release of body-camera, dashboard, and surveillance footage, which authorities withheld pending the investigation. The mayor and Board of Aldermen placed the unnamed officer on administrative leave.

Updates

2026-07-01 — Independent autopsy ruled Kohen Wiley's death a homicide [3]

An independent autopsy by forensic pathologist Dr. Roger Mitchell, announced by the family's attorneys, ruled the death a homicide and found the fatal shotgun wound entered the right side of the child's chest and exited the left torso — a trajectory the attorneys said was inconsistent with the police account that the car was driving toward the officer. Body-camera footage had not been publicly released as of that date.

2026-07-17 — Mississippi Today investigation found Foster had prior accusation of exaggerating a car threat to justify force [7]

A Mississippi Today investigation found that before joining Senatobia Police, Foster worked for the Southaven Police Department, where a 2019 confrontation at a Waffle House parking lot led to a federal lawsuit. Foster reported in his account that a driver had accelerated and "almost run over" another officer during a suspicious-vehicle call; surveillance footage filed in the lawsuit showed no evidence the vehicle drove toward or threatened officers and instead showed officers removing men from the car and striking them on the ground. The lawsuit — alleging false reports and excessive force against Foster and approximately a dozen other officers — settled in 2022 for an undisclosed amount. Foster denied through his attorney that he had known his report contained inaccuracies.

2026-07-18 — Officer named in leaked records had a prior complaint alleging a racist remark [5, 6]

Sgt. Hunter Foster, whom Mississippi Bureau of Investigation records released "in error" to another outlet identified as the subject of its investigation into the shooting, was the subject of a written internal complaint alleging he directed a racially offensive remark — "Who is this Black motherfucker back there?" — at a Black colleague, Officer Dexter Smith, in the department's booking room on June 12, 2026, two days before the shooting. Smith's complaint said two other officers overheard the remark and that booking-room surveillance equipment could corroborate it. No agency has officially confirmed Foster fired the fatal shot; he was placed on administrative leave after the shooting, described as standard procedure.

2026-08-22 — Mississippi Today revealed chief's racist texts, second Foster complaint [8]

Mississippi Today and the New York Times reported that Senatobia Police Chief Harold Vanderford used racial slurs, including the N-word, more than a dozen times across at least 10 private text-message conversations with a colleague between roughly summer 2025 and April 2026, in one exchange describing having a "racist moment" and referencing having screamed the slur "15 times." The same reporting disclosed that Foster had directed a racist remark at a second coworker, Officer Joshua Griffin, roughly six months before the shooting — beyond the previously reported June 12 remark to Officer Smith. Neither Vanderford nor Senatobia Mayor Greg Graves responded to requests for comment; no discipline or resignation had been reported for either official as of this reporting. Mississippi NAACP executive director Charles Taylor said on the record: "It is completely unacceptable for any law enforcement in Mississippi to use racial slurs, whether in private or in public, because no official can protect and serve a community while harboring hatred."

2026-09-01 — Senatobia fired Chief Vanderford, rejecting his resignation [9, 10, 11]

The Senatobia Board of Aldermen voted unanimously to reject Police Chief Harold Vanderford's resignation and terminate him instead, following the reporting on his racist text messages. Alderman Demetrius Garrett made the motion to fire rather than accept the resignation; Alderman Chris McConnell said the board "did not accept Vanderford's resignation and fired him." Lt. Angelica Maze was named interim police chief. Ben Crump, an attorney representing Kohen Wiley's family, called the firing the "right decision."