Police Kill 1-Year-Old Boy Shooting Into Car of Suspected Shoplifters
This week, police in Mississippi opened fire on a car to stop a fleeing suspect. Meanwhile, they killed the 1-year-old child and took his aunt to the hospital.
The scenario is tragic, but especially frustrating because in this case, it was a report of stolen diapers that brought police officers to the scene in the first place.
police on sunday replied to a phone call about a possible shoplifter at the Walmart in Senatebia, Mississippi. “Officers say they encountered two adults and a young child running from the building and getting into a vehicle.” reports Fox13. In the mobile phone footage at the scene, police teams can be seen running away on foot after the suspects.
“Authorities said the officers attempted to stop the vehicle, but the driver drove in the officers’ direction and nearly hit one of them.” adds WREG is citing the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (MBI). “According to MBI, an officer fired his weapon and the vehicle fled the scene.”
The car was taken to a local hospital, where 1-year-old Kohen Wiley was pronounced dead. Accordingly Besides Wiley’s family, the other passengers in the car were his mother and his aunt, who was in critical condition.
Later a witness requested He saw two women exit the store, one holding a child and the other holding a box of diapers. It is not yet clear whether they are actually stealing, but that is not the point; Even so, stealing diapers hardly merits an armed response.
Theft is a thing in Mississippi faultpunishable by a fine or several months’ imprisonment; There is absolutely nothing that justifies lethal force. Investigators claim the suspects drove their car towards one of the officers, but so far there is no evidence to confirm or deny this claim. mobile phone images it shows them driving away, but it does not show either the car heading towards a police officer or the shooting itself.
It is certainly plausible that investigators exaggerated the threat the officer faced or even lied about it. In January 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Jonathan Ross shot and killed Minneapolis driver Reneé Good. Then-Department of Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem said Good “armed her vehicle” by trying to hit her with his car, but footage from the scene shows Good actually trying to drive away around Ross positioned himself in front of his vehicle even as agents directed him to drive away.
It’s also unclear why officers in Mississippi felt the need to chase in this manner. According to MBIWhen police teams saw the suspects leaving the store and getting into their vehicles, they chose to follow them on foot. Investigators also admit that the officers saw that there was a child in the car, but still chose not only to give chase but also to use guns.
There are no national standards for foot pursuit, and few police departments even have rules in place. A. 2015 survey He asked “several hundred law enforcement agencies in the United States” if they had a written policy on foot pursuit and “the vast majority (86 or 414) stated that they did not.”
Among departments with written policies, the actions of Mississippi officers will not be sufficient.
in it foot tracking policyThe Madison Police Department in Madison, Wisconsin, warns officers to “assess the risks to themselves, other officers, the suspect, and the public, and balance that risk with the need to pursue and promptly apprehend the individual.” Potential factors include “whether the person is armed or dangerous,” “risk to officers and/or the person’s community,” and “the person’s ability to be apprehended at a later date.”
By each of these criteria, an officer should not follow. There was no indication the suspects were armed or posed a risk to the public, and any officer close enough to see the license plate could have run the numbers and identified the driver.
The Stanford Center for Racial Justice at Stanford Law School agrees, writing: “Model use of force policy“For an officer to “initiate a foot pursuit,” he or she must not only have reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed, but must also determine that “the benefit of promptly apprehending the person outweighs the risks to public and officer safety.”
Also, following a car on foot is counterintuitive. And petty thefts don’t seem to justify joining a chase, whether on foot or by car.
Unfortunately, police often resort to violence when pursuing a person suspected of stealing.
In February 2023, police were assigned to a shopping mall in Tysons Corner, Virginia. replied To a report of a man stealing sunglasses from Nordstrom. As he ran, officers chased him into the woods, where they drew their guns and shot him to death.
A jury in 2024 prisoner One of the officers was acquitted of manslaughter for reckless use of a firearm. A judge sentenced him to three years in prison, down from a five-year sentence, but outgoing Gov. Glenn Youngkin in January privileged “absolute amnesty” for the civil servant.
A security guard in Albuquerque in October 2025 shot and killed A man trying to steal items worth less than $100 from Spirit Halloween.
Kohen Wiley’s death is an unthinkable tragedy. But what was worse was that this occurred because police officers had no regard for her safety and treated suspicion of misdemeanor shoplifting as a crime that justified lethal force.
Post Police Killed a 1-Year-Old Child Who Shot at the Car of Suspected Thieves appeared for the first time reason.com.
