Inside the 25-Second Walmart Parking Lot Shooting That Left a Toddler Dead
A shoplifting report at a Senatobia Walmart escalated into a fatal police shooting in just 25 seconds this summer, a detailed frame-by-frame video breakdown published by Mississippi Today reveals. Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch announced that the state will not pursue criminal charges against Hunter Foster, the Senatobia police officer who fired the fatal shot that killed 1-year-old Kohen Wiley on June 14.
The incident began just after 2 p.m. inside a small monitoring room near the store entrance, where a Walmart employee interrupted officers discussing an unrelated matter. Outside, two women ran toward a gray sedan parked in the lot. Latoya Ferrell carried a box of diapers and got behind the wheel, while Vellesiya Wiley climbed into the passenger seat with her young son, Kohen, sitting on her lap.
Surveillance footage shows no one in the video accusing the women of a crime, mentioning a child, or explaining why they were running as they rushed to the car. An incident report filed later by Senatobia officers stated that baby clothes and a large box of Pampers Easy Ups diapers were stolen, noting the diapers were “under rang,” a term used when an item is skipped at self-checkout or swapped for a cheaper scan. Neither woman has been charged with a crime.
How the Confrontation Unfolded in Seconds
As officers sprinted toward the vehicle, it began backing out of its parking spot while law enforcement personnel shouted for it to stop. The first officer to draw a weapon was a deputy from the Tate County Sheriff’s Office, who pointed his gun toward the ground and holstered it almost immediately as the car continued to reverse. Officer Foster drew his weapon next, becoming the first officer to aim directly at the moving car approximately 20 seconds after the initial store alert.
Jeremy Bauer, a forensic reconstruction expert who reviewed body-worn camera footage from Foster and two other officers, noted that the car was still backing up when Foster leveled his gun. Russ Hicks, a retired law enforcement officer and use-of-force instructor from Washington who consults with police departments on de-escalation, questioned the speed of that escalation. “What concerns me is taking out the gun so quickly on this kind of a case,” Hicks said.
The driver backed into an SUV, briefly stopping before accelerating forward as five officers closed in with drawn weapons. The car moved toward Foster and a sheriff’s deputy. While the front wheel appeared to turn left away from Foster, his right leg was positioned in front of the bumper and his left leg beside the car as he fired a single shot through the windshield roughly 25 seconds after the Walmart employee first alerted officers. He then fired at least two more rounds into the side window.
Experts and Family Disagree on Vehicle Impact
Bauer, the forensic reconstruction expert, stated that Foster’s balance was not disrupted by the moving vehicle and that there was “no definitive evidence of an impact.” It remains unclear from the video footage whether any of the other officers standing near the car were struck. Bauer observed no evidence of contact aside from one officer bracing a hand on the hood.
By contrast, Veronica Roberson, Kohen’s grandmother, stated that officials with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation told her during a viewing of the footage that a sheriff’s deputy standing in front of the car was struck. Walmart surveillance footage appears to show the deputy jumping out of the way, though the camera’s lower frame rate makes precise movement difficult to determine. Other camera angles show the car veering close as the deputy lifted a leg and braced a hand against the vehicle.
State investigators released a portion of their collected body-worn camera and surveillance footage on Thursday. An earlier leaked video published on October 20 by Darkhorse Press, a Mississippi news outlet, featured a clip recorded about 20 minutes after the shooting outside the hospital where Kohen was pronounced dead. In that clip, Foster asked whether the 1-year-old had been hit, remarking, “I didn’t even see a baby in her lap,” followed by an expletive. That specific clip was omitted from the state’s official release.
The Senatobia Board of Aldermen placed Foster on administrative leave on June 16, according to official municipal records available via the City of Senatobia. Foster formally resigned from the police department.
