Kohen Wiley’s – Carolyn Stokes, great-grandmother of 1-year-old Kohen Wiley, condemned what she called reckless police action after an officer responding to a reported shoplifting incident in Senatobia, Mississippi, fatally shot the toddler’s vehicle. The officer was placed o
Carolyn Stokes still can’t square what happened in Senatobia, Mississippi — not with the speed of the moment, not with the choice to fire.
The 72-year-old, who lives in nearby Sardis, is the great-grandmother of 1-year-old Kohen Wiley. She said she has been struggling to understand why an officer responded to a reported shoplifting incident at a Walmart by discharging a weapon that ultimately killed her great-grandson.
“It was reckless, it was unnecessary to be firing into a car,” Stokes told Newsweek. “Why did you draw your weapon on people that were potential shoplifters? Why did you not go into the store? Because they were rushing from the store, they could’ve just been in a hurry.”
Stokes said the officer — now placed on administrative leave pending an investigation — seemed to act without restraint.
“It was just reckless, crazy,” she said. “I might as well say he had killing on his mind. I’m not a psychiatrist or anything like that, but it’s weird and crazy. … God has the last say. He will bring this all to the forefront in due time.”
The case turns on what happened outside the Walmart, where Wiley’s family says a crisis of communication became fatal.
According to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, officers encountered “two subjects and a juvenile” leaving the Walmart and entering a vehicle. Authorities said officers tried to stop the vehicle before the situation escalated.
“Officers attempted to stop the vehicle. but the driver drove in the direction of the officers. almost striking one. ” the agency said in a statement. “An officer then discharged their weapon and the vehicle fled the scene. The subjects arrived at a local hospital where one juvenile child in the vehicle was pronounced deceased and another subject had critical injuries. No law enforcement officers received any serious physical injury.”.
Kohen Wiley was inside the vehicle with his mother and a family friend. Stokes’ great-grandson was the child pronounced deceased. Wiley’s mother was unharmed, while the family friend reportedly suffered critical injuries.
While the investigation focuses on the attempted stop and the shooting, community members are pushing back on what led to the encounter.
Community advocate Marquell Bridges disputed claims tying Wiley’s mother to any alleged theft. “Kohen’s mother did not steal anything and was not a witness to or accomplice to any crime. ” Bridges wrote on Facebook. “She was skipping and playing with her child Kohen to the car moments earlier not fleeing a theft.”.
Wiley’s family has also spoken in grief and anger about the death of a baby.
Carlos Haynes, Wiley’s grandfather, told the Associated Press, “Someone ended it all before it could even start.”
Ben Crump, the civil rights attorney now representing the family, said legal action is on the way.
“Kohen Wiley was a baby,” Crump told Newsweek in a statement. “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.”.
For Stokes, the hardest part is the unanswered question that hangs over every detail: how quickly a reported incident involving possible shoplifting turned into gunfire, and why it landed on a one-year-old.
Kohen Wiley Senatobia Mississippi Walmart shooting shoplifting incident police officer administrative leave Mississippi Bureau of Investigation Ben Crump civil rights attorney Marquell Bridges Carolyn Stokes