US cop who killed one-year-old resigns hours after release of shooting footage

A Mississippi police officer who shot dead a one-year-old Black boy while responding to an alleged theft of diapers has resigned, hours after state authorities released bodycam footage of the shooting. The officer had been cleared of criminal wrongdoing days earlier. The city’s interim police chief has also stepped down.

Kohen Wiley was killed on June 14 when police officer Hunter Foster fired into a moving vehicle outside a Walmart in Senatobia. Police suspected the child’s mother and her friend of stealing diapers. Neither woman has been charged, and the mother has denied the allegation.

Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch said this week that Foster’s “use of force was justified”. But Kohen’s family has challenged the finding, saying footage released on Thursday shows the officer was not in danger when he fired the fatal shot.

Senatobia Mayor Greg Graves confirmed Foster’s resignation on Friday. He did not say whether the officer had been asked to resign. Interim police chief Angelica Maze also stepped down, according to a resignation letter reported by local media.

Foster’s lawyer, Martin Zummach, told NBC News that the officer had “resigned for the good of the city and the police department and to permit the process of healing”.

The child’s family said the resignation was not enough. Their lawyer, Ben Crump, has called for a US Department of Justice investigation.

“No mother should have to bury her baby over an allegation of shoplifting diapers,” Crump said on Friday.

WHAT THE NEWLY-RELEASED VIDEO SHOWS

Footage released by the Mississippi Department of Public Safety shows two women, one carrying a baby, running across the parking lot and entering a vehicle. Five officers approach with their guns drawn.

The vehicle reverses and hits a parked car as officers shout for it to stop. It then moves forward as an officer steps in front of it, holding his gun.

The wheels turn away from him. He appears to touch the bonnet as he moves out of the way, then fires, shattering the front passenger-side window. The vehicle drives away.

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation had said the driver drove towards officers as they tried to stop the vehicle.

Kohen’s mother, Vellesiya Wiley, has disputed that account. She has also said she held her son up to show officers he was in the car.

FAMILY QUESTIONS DECISION TO CLEAR OFFICER

Crump said Foster fired the fatal shot from the side of the vehicle and was not at risk of being hit at that point. He said an independent autopsy commissioned by the family supported that account.

Foster’s lawyer said the vehicle was about to hit the officer and he had “no choice” but to shoot. Zummach argued that the footage supported Foster’s account.

Kohen’s grandmother, Veronica Roberson, said she learnt from news reports that the officer had been cleared. She also saw parts of the footage leaked online before its official release.

“The word ‘justified’ has haunted me,” she said at a news conference on Thursday. “There’s no justification for that.”

Kohen would have turned two in early November, Crump said.

EXPERTS DIVIDED OVER SHOOTING

Two experts on police use of force who reviewed the footage for The Associated Press differed on whether Foster was justified in firing.

Former Baltimore police lieutenant Charles “Joe” Key said Foster had to make a split-second decision as the vehicle moved towards him and another officer. He described the shooting as “objectively reasonable”.

John P Gross, who studies police shootings involving moving vehicles, questioned why Foster had stepped into the car’s path. He said an allegation of shoplifting did not justify shooting at a fleeing suspect.

The department had already lost its previous chief, Harold Vanderford, who was fired in September after media reports revealed he had used racist slurs against Black people in text messages.

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(With inputs from agencies)