Police Responded to a Diaper Shoplifting Call: 1-Year-Old Boy Was Shot Dead

A Mississippi town is demanding answers after a 1-year-old boy was fatally shot by police during a response to an alleged shoplifting call involving diapers.

Kohen Wiley was killed in Senatobia, Mississippi, a small town of roughly 8,000 people, after police responded to a local Walmart on Sunday. What began as a report of alleged shoplifting quickly turned into a deadly encounter that has now sparked protests, outrage, and renewed calls for police accountability.

According to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, officers responded to the Walmart and found two women and a child leaving the store. The group got into a vehicle and drove away. Officials said officers attempted to stop the car, but the driver allegedly drove toward officers and almost struck one of them.

That is when an officer fired.

Kohen was inside the vehicle.

His mother, Vellesiya Wiley, said her baby and her friend, who was driving, were both hit by gunfire. In a video shared by civil rights attorney Ben Crump, Wiley disputed the official description of the vehicle moving toward officers. She said the officers were on the right side while the driver was moving left.

She also pushed back on the shoplifting allegation, saying she believes her friend paid for the diapers.

At this point, there are still many unanswered questions. The officer involved has been placed on administrative leave while the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation reviews the shooting. Authorities have said video will be released after the investigation is complete.

But for Kohen’s family and many people in Senatobia, one question is already impossible to ignore.

How did an alleged shoplifting call over diapers end with a baby dead?

Civil rights advocates have pointed to Kohen’s death as another example of police force being used in situations involving minor alleged offenses, especially when Black residents are involved. Kohen was Black, as are his mother and her friend.

Bernice King, the daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., responded to the case by saying society is treating “items on a shelf” as more valuable than a child’s life. She called the shooting not just bad policing, but a “moral collapse.”

That anger is not coming out of nowhere.

Community members say Kohen’s death comes after years of troubling police encounters involving Black residents in Senatobia. Advocates pointed to a 2024 incident in the same Walmart parking lot where an officer allegedly threatened a woman with a Taser, pulled her from her vehicle, and arrested her during a dispute over a handicapped parking space.

In 2023, a Senatobia officer was fired after a 10-year-old Black boy was arrested for urinating in a parking lot. The boy’s family later settled a federal lawsuit with the city.

For many residents, Kohen’s death feels like the breaking point.

Marquell Bridges, founder of the Building Bridges Coalition, has been helping the Wiley family and said the shooting reflects deeper problems between police and the Black community in Senatobia.

Civil rights attorney Carlos Moore, who has represented others accusing the department of misconduct, said there is a culture among some officers that they are “above the law” because they wear a uniform.

The shooting has also drawn comparisons to other police killings that began with accusations of minor crimes. Advocates have pointed to cases like George Floyd, who was killed after police responded to a call about an alleged fake $20 bill, and Ta’Kiya Young, a pregnant Black mother who was shot by police during a response to an alleged shoplifting incident in Ohio.

The circumstances in each case are different, but the larger concern is the same: why are encounters over low-level alleged offenses turning deadly?

Policing expert Ian Adams, who teaches criminal justice at the University of South Carolina, said shooting into a moving vehicle is widely recognized as dangerous and should be avoided in almost all situations. Vehicles can contain passengers, children, or other people who had nothing to do with the officer’s perceived threat.

That concern is painfully clear in Kohen’s case.

His grandmother, Veronica Roberson, described him as a happy baby with “the prettiest smile you could ever imagine.” She said he loved playing outside with a toy lawnmower that blew bubbles as he pushed it.

“He really thought he was mowing my yard,” she said, remembering him with a laugh through grief.

Then she said something no grandmother should ever have to say.

“That baby was my world.”

Now, Kohen’s family is waiting for answers. The community is waiting for video. And a small Mississippi town is once again facing hard questions about policing, race, accountability, and whether an alleged shoplifting call should ever have escalated to gunfire.

What do you think should happen next? Should police be banned from shooting into moving vehicles when children or passengers may be inside? And how should departments handle low-level shoplifting calls so they do not turn deadly?