The police shooting that killed 1-year-old Kohen Wiley as he sat in his mother’s lap in a Walmart parking lot in Senatobia, Miss., in June “was justified,” Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office announced on Monday.

“Today, the Office of the Attorney General announced it has completed the review of a June 14, 2026 incident in Senatobia involving one officer with the Senatobia Police Department,” the Republican attorney general’s statement said. “In this incident, the Attorney General’s Office found the use of force was justified. Pursuant to Section 45-1-6 of the Mississippi Code, the review followed an investigation by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation.”

Officers were responding to a shoplifting call alleging that Wiley’s mother, Vellesiya Wiley, and Latoya Ferrell had stolen a pack of diapers. The women exited the store with the child as officers arrived, entered their vehicle and began to leave the parking lot. Officers drew their weapons, and Vellesiya Wiley lifted her son up to show the officers that a child was in the car. One officer fired into the vehicle, killing the baby as she held him. A bullet also wounded Ferrell.

  • velma@sh.itjust.works
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    5 hours ago

    Consider this a warning: We can speak about the horrors of this case without leaning into misogyny and attacking this woman for how she looks.

    Comments attacking anyone for how they look will be subject to removal.

    • jdr@lemmy.ml
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      4 hours ago

      Better not watch Jimmy Kimmel or any political comedy then!

        • jdr@lemmy.ml
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          4 hours ago

          I’m saying it’s super mainstream to denigrate or make fun of the appearances of people as part of criticizing their actions or politics.

          Personally I find it immoral and stupid. Saying e.g. “Trump is fat” as a way of showing your disapproval won’t hurt him and will just make things worse for others, but it’s so common that I usually don’t even bother making a fuss.

          I respect your position and good luck maintaining it.

  • RattlerSix@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    Jesus fuck, all over a pack of diapers from, I assume, a company worth a hundred billion dollars.

  • [object Object]@lemmy.ca
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    5 hours ago

    That is fucked up.

    Even if we accept the premise she was driving straight towards them, shooting her does not stop the vehicle.

    I don’t accept that premise, by the way.

    For a non violent property crime (of stealing diapers, probably one of the most ethical crimes you could do as a poor person) they could have mortised the license plate, they had video of her, they could have stepped aside and could have shot the vehicle’s tires.

    I see no universe where this makes any sense.

    • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      if there were any evidence that supported the cops’ story, they would have released it.

      the fact that none of the footage from WALMART or any dash or body cam footage has been released tells you everything you need to know.

    • kunaltyagi@programming.dev
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      3 hours ago

      When you have a hammer and a ducktape, have been trained to only use a hammer, taught that everything is a nail, all you can do is hammer nails.

      The tape is just there. Hammer is all that’s ever used

    • arak@lemmy.today
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      Cops are retarded, they just say these types of statements in an attempt to justify their murder as self defense, but these government agencies allow it to happen when it’s not against rich corrupt white people.

    • arak@lemmy.today
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      They don’t even need to, they know who she is they can just charge her bank account directly with zero violence, zero public officer duty labor hours, zero weapon discharge bullets costs.

  • Pratai@piefed.ca
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    5 hours ago

    Ya hear that folks? Shoplifting diapers for your child is legally punishiable by death but if you brutally rape someone else’s child, you can be president of an entire nation!

    Scorched earth people. NEVER forgive, and NEVER let them forget they not only allowed this, but approved it.

  • bad1080@piefed.social
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    2 hours ago

    every time i see one of those headlines i wonder which one is going to be the one that light the spark?

  • Lovable Sidekick@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    If police can shoot at you for stealing a pack of diapers worth $20 or less, why won’t they come to your house after a burglarly unless you lost more than $600 worth of stuff?

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    7 hours ago

    So, she stole diapers, didn’t have a weapon, I can’t imagine she was driving while holding up a child, and posed some sort of imminent threat?

    Where is the immediate threat to life and limb?

    • velma@sh.itjust.worksOPM
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      7 hours ago

      Where is the immediate threat to life and limb?

      They’re claiming that the other woman was driving the vehicle towards officers, but shooting at a moving vehicle is never justified anyway.

      It’s all bullshit to protect the police here.

      • Fishnoodle@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        Yeah, shooting at the driver of a moving vehicle should almost never be justified, except in extreme cases.

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    6 hours ago

    My takeaway from this is that any time I see a cop, there’s a chance they shot a baby to death and suffered no consequences? Are they even human at this point?

    • deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz
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      6 hours ago

      “You’ve heard of animals chewing off a leg to escape a trap? There’s an animal kind of trick. A human would remain in the trap, endure the pain, feigning death that he might kill the trapper and remove a threat to his kind.” - Dune, Frank Herbert

      Substitute firing a weapon for chewing off a leg.

  • velma@sh.itjust.worksOPM
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    7 hours ago

    How the fuck is shooting into a moving vehicle ever justified?

    Release the body cam and the Walmart video.

    • atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works
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      5 hours ago

      What really gets me is that tracking down vehicles is like the purpose of Flock and other ALPRs and dead people usually can’t hit the brakes.

      So even having had a chance to see the license plate personally and living in a world where helicopters and magnetic AirTag like devices exist if you don’t have access to Flock or some other ability to simply follow the fucking car for whatever reason they still think they were justified in killing a child in order to… not stop the car before it would have hit an officer if it was going to because, like I said earlier, dead people don’t generally have the ability to stop cars…

      And let just be totally honest, if you have time to register speed and direction of a car, unholster, unsafety, cock, aim, and fire, then you or whoever else had time to get out of the fucking way of the car!!!

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    7 hours ago

    Jesus, if they are trying to paint themselves in the best possible light with this, that place is a shithole. There isn’t any part of this that even warrants pulling a gun. A fucking pack of diapers? No weapons? And a known baby in the vehicle?

    Why did any of that need to be dealt with immediately and with deadly force?