The police shooting that killed 1-year-old Kohen Wiley as he sat in his mother’s lap in a Walmart parking lot in Senatobia, Miss., in June “was justified,” Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office announced on Monday.

“Today, the Office of the Attorney General announced it has completed the review of a June 14, 2026 incident in Senatobia involving one officer with the Senatobia Police Department,” the Republican attorney general’s statement said. “In this incident, the Attorney General’s Office found the use of force was justified. Pursuant to Section 45-1-6 of the Mississippi Code, the review followed an investigation by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation.”

Officers were responding to a shoplifting call alleging that Wiley’s mother, Vellesiya Wiley, and Latoya Ferrell had stolen a pack of diapers. The women exited the store with the child as officers arrived, entered their vehicle and began to leave the parking lot. Officers drew their weapons, and Vellesiya Wiley lifted her son up to show the officers that a child was in the car. One officer fired into the vehicle, killing the baby as she held him. A bullet also wounded Ferrell.

  • velma@sh.itjust.works
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    16 days ago

    Consider this a warning: We can speak about the horrors of this case without leaning into misogyny and attacking this woman for how she looks.

    Comments attacking anyone for how they look will be subject to removal.

    • Zephyr@sh.itjust.works
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      15 days ago

      Maybe there should be a location for this? Just to blow off steam and know it’s not serious or is more so an emotional outburst.

      • velma@sh.itjust.worksOPM
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        15 days ago

        A location for bashing how a woman looks? You’re on the internet. It’s fucking everywhere here.

            • Zephyr@sh.itjust.works
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              15 days ago

              We can deviate a little from the conversation as other comments here have and others across Lemmy typically do without question.

              • velma@sh.itjust.worksOPM
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                15 days ago

                I have many comments here, you could’ve replied directly to them instead. Of course I’m going to think that you’re looking for a place to bash women if you reply directly to that comment asking.

                You’re more than welcome to continue to ignore context throughout the Fediverse, I don’t really care what you do.

                • Zephyr@sh.itjust.works
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                  15 days ago

                  I didn’t take the time to read all of your comments, I apologize for that. It’s still an open question of if there should be a location for emotional outbursts, not specific to what you’re saying or what you’re saying I’m saying. Of course people will have emotional outbursts and it’s a real aspect of the human condition so it may be useful to have a location for that.

          • velma@sh.itjust.worksOPM
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            14 days ago

            I had a full conversation with you and you just want to be cheeky.

            Say it with your chest or gtfo.

              • velma@sh.itjust.worksOPM
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                14 days ago

                No, I’m talking directly to your beating around the bush in what your initial comment meant.

                By all means - expand on what you meant right here.

                • Zephyr@sh.itjust.works
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                  14 days ago

                  I mean I meant what I said. If people want to have inappropriate emotional outbursts (typically from a source of anger) then it may be useful to have a dedicated location for that instead of it spilling out into discussions.

      • athatet@lemmy.zip
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        15 days ago

        I’m literally on lemmy and not doing that so what the fuck are you talking about?

        • jdr@lemmy.ml
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          16 days ago

          I’m saying it’s super mainstream to denigrate or make fun of the appearances of people as part of criticizing their actions or politics.

          Personally I find it immoral and stupid. Saying e.g. “Trump is fat” as a way of showing your disapproval won’t hurt him and will just make things worse for others, but it’s so common that I usually don’t even bother making a fuss.

          I respect your position and good luck maintaining it.

          • KeithD@lemmy.nz
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            16 days ago

            Most of those making fun of the way Trump looks (at least in my experience) tend to be focusing more on his bad spray tan, and that’s more criticising his poor judgement of voluntarily going out looking like that.

  • NoxAstrum@lemmy.ca
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    16 days ago

    So, she stole diapers, didn’t have a weapon, I can’t imagine she was driving while holding up a child, and posed some sort of imminent threat?

    Where is the immediate threat to life and limb?

    • kreskin@lemmy.world
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      15 days ago

      the cops will lie to create one, they always do. Hopefully it was being recorded-- its the only way to have a chnace of justice when cops are present.

    • velma@sh.itjust.worksOPM
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      16 days ago

      Where is the immediate threat to life and limb?

      They’re claiming that the other woman was driving the vehicle towards officers, but shooting at a moving vehicle is never justified anyway.

      It’s all bullshit to protect the police here.

      • Fishnoodle@lemmy.world
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        16 days ago

        Yeah, shooting at the driver of a moving vehicle should almost never be justified, except in extreme cases.

        • agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
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          14 days ago

          Why would it ever be justified? Shooting the driver doesn’t cause the car to screech to a stop, it just turns a controlled moving vehicle into an uncontrolled moving vehicle.

  • kreskin@lemmy.world
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    15 days ago

    He was…crawling right at them? Might have overpowered them? And of course it happened at a walmart.

    What would have happened if the lady got away with a pack of stolen diapers? Worth firing guns over I guess?

    I dont even recognize this country anymore. Its barbaric.

  • velma@sh.itjust.worksOPM
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    16 days ago

    How the fuck is shooting into a moving vehicle ever justified?

    Release the body cam and the Walmart video.

    • atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works
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      16 days ago

      What really gets me is that tracking down vehicles is like the purpose of Flock and other ALPRs and dead people usually can’t hit the brakes.

      So even having had a chance to see the license plate personally and living in a world where helicopters and magnetic AirTag like devices exist if you don’t have access to Flock or some other ability to simply follow the fucking car for whatever reason they still think they were justified in killing a child in order to… not stop the car before it would have hit an officer if it was going to because, like I said earlier, dead people don’t generally have the ability to stop cars…

      And let just be totally honest, if you have time to register speed and direction of a car, unholster, unsafety, cock, aim, and fire, then you or whoever else had time to get out of the fucking way of the car!!!

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    16 days ago

    Jesus, if they are trying to paint themselves in the best possible light with this, that place is a shithole. There isn’t any part of this that even warrants pulling a gun. A fucking pack of diapers? No weapons? And a known baby in the vehicle?

    Why did any of that need to be dealt with immediately and with deadly force?

  • Rhaedas@fedia.io
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    16 days ago

    “Serve and protect”

    “The public?”

    “No, the property owners. Diapers recovered.”

    • Fishnoodle@lemmy.world
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      16 days ago

      Walmart probably won’t even clean the blood off the box before putting them back in the shelf at full price

    • Asafum@lemmy.world
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      16 days ago

      “In a subsequent investigation we discovered the diapers were in fact damaged by the officer. The officer in question has been executed.”

        • j5y7@sh.itjust.works
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          16 days ago

          Nah, he got a paid “suspension” and used the time to make more money as “security” at the night club, where he either beat or murdered more people of color.

  • pelespirit@sh.itjust.works
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    16 days ago

    Neither woman has been charged with a crime, and officials have not released any evidence of shoplifting. Wiley and both women are Black; the officer identified as the subject of the investigation, Hunter Foster, is white.

    • CTDummy@piefed.social
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      16 days ago

      Not only white but two misconduct charges and an internal complaint days prior to the shooting for making racially offensive remarks to a coworker. Yet this is the guy the AG let’s skate for murdering a baby because the vehicle was “driving in their direction” and “nearly struck him”. Last month their police chief was fired for texting racial slurs, on a completely unrelated note.

  • Cherries@lemmy.world
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    16 days ago

    Were the police trained in Isreal? Or is this just the result of standard cop Killology training?

  • Fishnoodle@lemmy.world
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    16 days ago

    They murdered a baby over a nonviolent misdemeanor that would have had at most had a $1000 fine. We need to wall off a lot of the red states from civilized society, kind of like escape from NY/LA.

    Maybe when they are forced to deal with their own shit hole states they’ll make them livable.

    • velma@sh.itjust.worksOPM
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      16 days ago

      We don’t need to go there, y’know. We can criticize her decisions without attacking how she looks.

        • Kraiden@piefed.social
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          16 days ago

          So what? It’s still attacking a woman based on appearance. It’s not ok, no matter who the woman is, and I will die on this hill.

          Now if you want to attack her CHARACTER because her office decided that SHOOTING A 1 YEAR OLD BECAUSE HIS MOTHER STOLE DIAPERS is somehow ok, have at it.

      • Hegar@fedia.io
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        16 days ago

        It’s worth mentioning how she looks because that ghoulish plastic surgery look is an identity marker for the worst humans in the country.

        The rich right wing lunatics who identify themselves by attaining that mar-a-lago face are also devoted to performative cruelty, like she is doing.

        Her appearance is relevant here like her party membership is.

        • velma@sh.itjust.worksOPM
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          16 days ago

          It is not exclusive to MAGA women and honestly pushing to judge people’s intent by how they look is leaning into some ugly stereotypes and discrimination.

          • Hegar@fedia.io
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            16 days ago

            For sure, it’s also maga men who buy mar-a-lago face and others who want to be associated with wealth and grift.

            I’m not suggesting judging intent by looks but when you see performative cruelty, you almost always see that face. It’s relevant, it correlates.

            It’s like finding out a child sex offender is an active member of the republican party. Not all pedophiles are republicans and republicans can’t be assumed to be pedophiles, but it’s worth mentioning because there is a strong stastical correlation between the two.

        • Peacepath@lemmy.world
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          16 days ago

          Nor her appearance, nor her party membership, nor even if she was the one worse human would justify that police kills her 1 year old kid.

        • Kraiden@piefed.social
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          16 days ago

          Her appearance is relevant

          No. It’s not. Everyone adjusts their appearance to some degree to fit in with their chosen group.

          If you can’t make a coherent argument against someone’s behavior, or politics or beliefs, you fall back to their appearance.

          It’s why bigots will attack transgender people for not “passing” or attack Muslims for wearing a hijab, or misogynists attack women for having died hair, or too many piercings or why racists will attack the way other people dress.

          It’s easy. It’s lazy. It’s just “othering” people in the dumbest way possible.

          She’s done PLENTY to criticize, no matter what she looks like.

          • Hegar@fedia.io
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            16 days ago

            Oh yeah, critizing her behaviour is clearly more important and (i hope) more productive.

            But it’s still worth mentioning that of course she has mar-a-lago face.

            • Kraiden@piefed.social
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              16 days ago

              No it’s not! That’s my whole point! Her appearance is beyond irrelevant! Focus on what matters!