Hundreds march in Senatobia seeking answers after 1-year-old killed in Walmart parking lot

Nearly 100 people marched through Senatobia on Friday to demand answers nearly two weeks after a police officer fired into a car in a Walmart parking lot, killing 1-year-old Kohen Wiley, the Mississippi Department of Public Safety said.

Organizers said protesters walked about three miles from the store on U.S. 51, passed municipal offices and returned to the Walmart. The family said they planned to go to the Senatobia Police Department but could not because a road was closed for construction.

The Wiley family and supporters called for “total and full transparency,” including the release of law enforcement body and dashboard camera footage and surveillance video from inside and outside the store, organizers said. They also asked for records of communications between police and Walmart before and after the June 14 shooting.

Marquell Bridges, president of the Building Bridges Coalition and spokesman for the Wiley family, told the crowd investigators should not need “six to nine months” to review footage when there are multiple cameras. He said organizers were urging a boycott of the store to press law enforcement and Walmart to release video. Bridges said prior demonstrations had been peaceful aside from an earlier protest when law enforcement deployed tear gas.

Vellesiya Wiley, Kohen’s mother, has said she was holding the child and tried to tell officers a child was present before she heard “three to four shots,” one of which struck her son and others that hit the driver, attorneys for the family said. State officials have said a police officer responding to a reported shoplifting shot at a car that authorities say drove toward an officer. Neither Kohen’s mother nor the driver, who was critically wounded, have been charged in the reported shoplifting, the family’s attorneys said.

After the march, protesters added a new banner to a memorial at the Walmart and attended a viewing for Kohen. Organizers and attorneys held a town hall meeting at Fairway Christian Church where speakers, including political organizer Fred Hampton Jr. and several mothers of people killed in confrontations with police, urged sustained organizing and offered support, organizers said. Walmart closed the store Friday; company spokeswoman Kelly Hellbusch said the retailer was “heartbroken” and was cooperating with investigators but declined to answer questions about who called police or whether employees have guidance on calling law enforcement.

Attorneys Ben Crump and Van Turner have said they expected a preliminary autopsy report earlier in the week and have requested an independent autopsy for the family. As of Friday, the attorneys and family spokesperson had not confirmed receipt of a state report, the organizers said.

Source: Original Article