Mother of 1-year-old killed by officer tried to show she had child inside car
By Richard Bourne
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SENATOBIA, Mississippi (WAPT) — The mother of a 1-year-old who was shot and killed by a police officer in Senatobia is speaking out publicly for the first time.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump released the video clip of Vellesiya Wiley’s account of what happened Sunday at Walmart when her son Kohen Wiley was shot and killed.
“It was me, my son and another friend of mine at Walmart. As we was leaving out the Walmart, they tried to stop her, but I kept walking, because it had nothing to do with me. By the time me and my baby got in the car, she came, and then when we was backing up, they was running out to come. I raised my baby, because they was drawing they guns. She has no tent. I raised my baby up trying to show them that he was in the car. So, she was backing up, and she hit the car,” Wiley said.
The Senatobia Police Department and Tate County Sheriff’s Office responded to the situation at the Walmart on Highway 51.
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation said officers were responding to a shoplifting call when they tried to stop the car, and when the driver drove towards the officers, nearly hitting one of them, they opened fire.
“By the time I sat my baby down, it was like three to four shots. One of the shots hit him in his rib cage, and the other shot hit her in her arm and her thigh, and we left and went to Senatobia Hospital where he was pronounced dead,” Wiley said.
The mourning mother also addressed the shoplifting claim against her friend as well as the claim that she tried to run over law enforcement.
“On the little self-checkout, they can see its cameras, they can see when she got the diapers and walked out, but yeah, they tried to say that she forcefully was trying to drive and hit them, but they were all on the right side, and she was driving to the left. They just personally shot into the car,” Wiley said.
Tuesday, Mississippi Department of Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell addressed the media and the public.
“To make no mistake, this is a very tragic situation. I want the public to be assured that the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation will conduct its independent investigation. We have five agents working on this case,” Tindell said.
Tindell said they would be working with Walmart to review surveillance video to see what happened prior to the shooting.
The commissioner asked the public to be patient as the investigation proceeded.
The officer who shot the child has been placed on administrative leave.
There has been public outcry in the wake of the shooting. A large group of protesters gathered Tuesday outside Walmart demanding justice. They were met with a strong law enforcement presence, which eventually led to tear gas being fired.
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