MBI accidentally released a report about the fatal shooting of Kohen Wiley. Here’s what we know.

Mukta Joshi is an investigative reporter at Mississippi Today. She is spending a year as a New York Times Local Investigations fellow examining immigration and criminal justice issues. She can be reached at [email protected].

A new set of records mistakenly released to a local news outlet by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation provides the most detailed look yet at how the agency investigated the police shooting death of 1-year-old Kohen Wiley in a Walmart parking lot this summer. 

In response to a public records request, TVMO News Network received 65 unredacted pages – including summaries of witness statements – that the MBI had not intended to make public. 

After the mistake was brought to MBI’s attention, officials shared a redacted copy with the outlet with names and sensitive information removed, and requested that version be used instead. 

You can access that copy here:

The documents provide a first look at how the officers involved recounted what happened in June, when they chased two women accused of shoplifting diapers and baby clothes and surrounded their car as they began to flee. Previously released video of the incident shows Hunter Foster, then a sergeant with the Senatobia Police Department, stepping in front of the car and pointing his gun as it backed up, and then firing as it approached him.

Mississippi’s attorney general, Lynn Fitch, determined in October that Foster was justified in firing at the car and announced the state would not pursue charges against him.

While the documents include some details that had not previously been made public, there are no major revelations that explain, or call into question, the reasoning behind the attorney general’s decision not to pursue charges. The report does not include any conclusions investigators may have drawn about the officers’ actions.

Alex Gibert, a spokesperson for MBI, said the agency’s investigation remains open and active, despite Fitch’s decision not to prosecute Foster. Gibert declined to comment on the specifics of what or whom officials were investigating. 

The document, titled “Report of Investigation,” does not appear to be a complete record, because it references several attachments that are not included.

Here are some key takeaways from the released records:

1. How many officers, if any, were struck by the fleeing car has been a point of contention. In their statements, four officers said that the car struck at least one of the officers who had surrounded the car. No more than two officers were struck, the statements indicate. 

• Foster told investigators that the vehicle was “already striking” him and the sheriff’s deputy to his right before he could get out of its path. 
  
• Colson Sims, a Senatobia officer, said he observed Foster “buckled over the hood of the vehicle” due to “being struck.” 
  
• Nathan Noe, a Tate County sheriff’s deputy, said the vehicle struck his left thigh as it reversed, and then again struck him and Foster as it accelerated forward.
  
• Marshall Scott, another Tate County sheriff’s deputy, said the car struck Noe as it reversed.

MBI’s first official statement about the incident, issued in June, said the car had “almost” struck one officer. Multiple experts who reviewed body-worn camera footage and surveillance video of the incident said there was no definitive evidence that any of the officers were struck, although the car came close to several of them, making it difficult to determine. 

1. Martin Zummach, Foster’s lawyer, recently said during a television interview that his client had no idea who he was chasing and he wouldn’t have fired at the car had he known they were accused only of shoplifting diapers. The footage released by MBI so far showed a Walmart loss prevention employee only saying, “Two girls running,” before officers sprinted out of the store. 

But the officers may have had more information about the women than was previously known. In their statements, they made several references to the women being accused of shoplifting.

• Noe’s statement referenced a conversation with a Walmart employee, who had told officers he was going to confront two Black women who had been shoplifting. Noe said the employee later came back to tell officers the women were running. That led Foster and the other officers to chase them to their car.
  
• Sims told investigators that the loss prevention employee said “two shoplifters” were running from them.
  
• Foster’s statement refers to suspects “who had just shoplifted” when describing the women entering their vehicle.

1. A central question not addressed by state authorities is whether officers at the scene ever saw Kohen in his mother’s arms before Foster fired at the car. None of the officers said in their statements that they saw a child, or knew one was present. Shaquille Moore, one of the Senatobia officers involved in the chase, said in his statement they only learned about the child after the injuries were reported.
   
2. Experts have raised concerns about Foster’s decision to shoot, in part because at least one officer was standing near the driver and could have been hit. Moore told investigators he did not fire at the driver for that reason. 
   
3. The report’s incident summary says charges are pending against both Kohen’s mother, Vellesiya Wiley, and the driver of the car, Latoya Ferrell. It does not mention the nature of the charges, or describe whether they are related to shoplifting or other actions taken by the women.