Kohen Wiley was just one-year-old. He was riding in the front passenger seat, held by his mother, when a Senatobia, Mississippi, police officer opened fire on the car he was in.

The shooting happened Sunday (June 14), in the parking lot of a Walmart on Highway 51, after police responded to a report of shoplifting.

According to a statement from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, officers encountered two women and the child fleeing the store into a vehicle. As officers tried to stop the car, the MBI says the driver steered toward them, nearly striking one, prompting an officer to open fire on the vehicle as it drove away. The women then drove to a nearby hospital, where Kohen was pronounced dead. His aunt, who was driving, was critically injured. His mother was physically unharmed.

Wiley's family disputes that any shoplifting occurred at all. According to WREG, relatives say a witness saw two women leave the store before the shooting — one carrying a single box of diapers, the other carrying the baby. Kohen's grandmother, Licole Wiley, told the outlet the entire encounter happened "allegedly over some Pampers."

"Whatever the incident may have come to, it still didn't need for you to shoot two adults and a baby that was not even a threat to you," she said.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is now representing the family alongside attorney Van Turner, did not hold back in a statement, per NBC News.

"A 1-year-old child is dead because police officers in Mississippi opened fire on a car in a crowded Walmart parking lot," Crump said. "His mother, who has not been charged with any crime, says she was trying to communicate to officers that there was a baby in the car. They fired anyway, leading to the death of an innocent 1-year-old. We intend to seek justice for baby Kohen and the life that was stolen from him."

Kohen's grandfather, Carlos Haynes, described his grandson as a happy baby he had been looking forward to watching grow, in comments to the Associated Press.

"Someone ended it all before it could even start," he said.

The community's response has been immediate and intense. According to the Mississippi Free Press, roughly 200 people gathered outside Senatobia City Hall on Tuesday demanding accountability, later marching toward the Walmart where Kohen was killed.

Action News 5 reported that law enforcement deployed tear gas to disperse the crowd that evening.

Mississippi Department of Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell addressed reporters and a frustrated crowd outside the Tate County Courthouse, asking for patience while five MBI agents investigate, per the Mississippi Free Press. He said body camera footage, dash cam video, and Walmart's surveillance footage would not be released until the investigation concludes and is handed to the attorney general's office for a possible charging decision, according to Action News 5.

The officer who fired the shots has not been publicly identified but was placed on administrative leave Tuesday night (June 16).

Residents say the tension didn't start with Kohen's death. According to the Mississippi Free Press, several pointed to a history of strained relations between Senatobia police and the Black community, including the department's 2024 arrest of an 11-year-old boy for urinating outside the jail.

Kohen's great-grandmother, Carolyn Stokes, told WREG: "Senatobia Police Department get away with too much stuff. I hear about it all the time. It's in the news all the time."

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