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Senatobia police refused to release the incident report and camera footage of the shooting that killed 1-year-old Kohen Wiley

Nearly three weeks after a Senatobia police officer fatally shot 1-year-old Kohen Wiley outside a Walmart, city police and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation refused repeated public-records requests for the incident report, body-worn and dashboard camera footage, and store surveillance video. A Senatobia sergeant declined to release the incident report despite Mississippi law making such records public, and the family's attorneys said every footage request had been denied.

Jurisdiction
local
Location
Senatobia, Mississippi

Abuses documented

Actors

  • Senatobia Police Department (refused to release incident report and camera footage)
  • Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (withheld and heavily redacted shooting records)

Nearly three weeks after a Senatobia, Mississippi police officer fatally shot 1-year-old Kohen Wiley outside a Walmart on June 14, 2026, city police and state investigators refused repeated public-records requests seeking to explain how the shooting happened. At a July 2026 press conference, attorneys for Wiley's family said requests for body-worn and dashboard camera footage and the store's surveillance video had all been denied. When a reporter asked a Senatobia police sergeant for the incident report, the sergeant declined to provide it, saying, "I'm not gonna stand here and debate with you all day long about public records law."

Mississippi's public-records law makes police incident reports public documents. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which is leading the inquiry into the shooting, released an incident report so heavily redacted that it did not confirm the officer's identity, and authorities indicated they would not release the requested footage until their investigation was complete. The refusals unfolded as the killing of the toddler drew national attention and repeated demonstrations in Senatobia, with the family's attorneys separately commissioning an independent autopsy after being denied access to official evidence.

Why we recorded this

Public-records laws let citizens see how the government uses lethal force in their name. When a police department kills a child and then refuses to release the incident report, body-camera footage, and surveillance video that the law makes public, it denies the community the transparency that oversight of police depends on. This archive records when access to government records about the use of state force is withheld, weakening the public's ability to hold officials accountable.

Sources

  1. Senatobia police stonewall requests for details of officer shooting that killed 1-year-old outside Walmart — Mississippi Today investigative accessed July 2, 2026
  2. Records reveal name of Senatobia officer involved in shooting that killed 1-year-old — Action News 5 (WMC) investigative accessed July 2, 2026

See also