Mississippi Police Officer Resigns After Being Cleared in Fatal Shooting of 1-Year-Old Boy During Walmart Parking Lot Incident

The police officer who shot and killed a 1-year-old boy in Mississippi while firing into a moving vehicle during a shoplifting response has officially resigned from his position, Senatobia Mayor Greg Graves confirmed on Friday.

The resignation of Sgt. Hunter Foster comes just days after the Mississippi Attorney General’s office cleared him of any criminal wrongdoing following a months-long investigation. State prosecutors concluded that Foster’s use of deadly force during the June 14 encounter was legally justified, a decision that has sparked intense public scrutiny, grief, and calls for further federal investigation from the family and their legal representatives.

The fatal encounter unfolded in the parking lot of a Walmart store in Senatobia, a community located approximately 40 miles south of Memphis, Tennessee. On Thursday, state authorities released a cache of official videos documenting the incident, including body-worn camera footage captured by Foster and other responding officers.

The release of the footage offered the public its first comprehensive look at the chaotic sequence of events that led to the death of 1-year-old Kohen Wiley, who would have celebrated his second birthday in early November.

According to reports from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, a group of Senatobia police officers was already present at the Walmart store on an unrelated matter when a store employee alerted them to two women fleeing the premises. Surveillance and body-camera footage show Kohen’s mother, Vellesiya Wiley, holding her toddler as she and a female friend run across the busy parking lot toward a vehicle.

As the two women reach the car and get inside, five police officers approach the parked vehicle with their weapons drawn. The car initially reverses away from the officers, striking a parked vehicle nearby while law enforcement personnel loudly command the driver to stop.

The vehicle then shifts into drive and accelerates forward. Video footage shows Foster stepping directly into the path of the car with his gun drawn. As the wheels turn away from him, Foster briefly places his hands on the hood of the vehicle and jumps to the side to avoid being struck. In that split-second movement, he fires his weapon into the car.

The bullet shatters the window of the front passenger side, where young Kohen was seated on his mother’s lap. Despite the gunfire, the vehicle continues driving away from the scene.

In the wake of the shooting, Foster’s defense attorney, Martin Zummach, maintained that his client acted lawfully out of self-defense. Zummach stated that Foster had "no choice" but to discharge his firearm because the vehicle was moving directly toward him, placing his life in imminent danger.

However, that narrative has been vehemently disputed by the toddler’s family and their legal team, led by prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump. Following the release of the state’s video evidence, Crump and the family argued that the footage demonstrates the fatal shot was fired from the side of the car rather than directly from the front, contradicting the claim that the officer was facing an immediate threat of being run over. An independent autopsy commissioned by the family reportedly reached a similar conclusion. Photographs of the vehicle showing the shattered right-front passenger window have been cited by the family’s legal team as physical evidence supporting their version of events.

In addition to disputing the officers’ account of the vehicle’s trajectory, Vellesiya Wiley has denied allegations that she and her companion were involved in shoplifting diapers from the Walmart store. State and county court records confirm that neither woman has faced formal criminal charges in connection with the retail store incident.

Following the decision by the Mississippi Attorney General’s office to clear Foster of criminal charges, the family’s legal team formally requested that the federal government launch an independent investigation into the shooting.

Mayor Graves confirmed Friday that Foster had stepped down from the Senatobia Police Department, though attorney Martin Zummach declined to provide further comments when reached by reporters. The Mississippi Department of Public Safety, which has overseen the state-level investigation alongside the Attorney General’s office, has continued to urge members of the public to remain patient as inquiries into the broader circumstances of the incident continue.