By Mary Ginther
(Source: Atlanta Black Star)
The legal team for the family of a 1-year-old boy who was killed by police is raising new questions in the case.
Attorneys Ben Crump and Van Turner shared preliminary findings from an independent autopsy during a news conference Wednesday.
“We’re here fighting for transparency,” Crump said. “We don’t need you to narrate it for us. Black people have eyes. You have eyes. You saw the video.”
‘You People Ruined Everything’: Black Homeowner Survives Racist Neighbor’s Bullet — Now He’s Coming for the Cops Who Let It Happen
‘He Needs New Glasses!’: White Man Hurls N-word at Black Motorist, Threatens to ‘Take Him Out,’ Then Instantly Regrets It
Family Requests Independent Autopsy
The autopsy was requested by the family of Kohen Wiley. He was shot by an officer in the Walmart parking lot in Senatobia, 40 miles south of Memphis.
According to Crump, the autopsy showed the bullet that hit the child came through the car’s side, not the front.
“This police officer is shooting from the side,” Crump said. “You can’t get that shot from the front. Why would you shoot into a vehicle from the side where you’re clearly not in harm’s way?”
Few details have been released in the two weeks since the fatal shooting on June 14. Atlanta Black Star previously reported police were responding to a shoplifting call at a Walmart when an officer fired at a car the child was in.
According to state investigators, officers at Walmart saw “two subjects and a juvenile child fleeing from the store into a vehicle.”
Kohen’s mother was a passenger in the car; her friend was driving.
“I raised my baby up trying to show [the officers] he was in the car,” the mother said.
Video footage from local media shows the car with a shattered passenger-side window and a bullet hole toward the left side of the windshield, suggesting the cop fired from the side of the car.
“We’re trying to put together the puzzle so we can get to what really happened,” Crump said. “We shouldn’t have to do this to get to the simple truth about what happened.”
The attorney called out the investigators and Walmart for failing to release video of the incident.
“Senatobia Police Department gets away with too much stuff,” Carolyn Stokes, Kohen’s great-grandmother, told WREG-TV.
Medical Results Show Contradictions
Crump said the pathologist noted injury patterns on the child’s body caused by debris in the bullet’s wake. He showed a picture of the child’s right torso with several abrasions.
The attorney said those abrasions were consistent with pseudo-stippling caused by tempered glass, likely from the right-side passenger window.
Crump also displayed a picture of the car, showing the damage to the passenger window.
Police said another person in the car was injured in the shooting.
Family members told WREG that the person is Kohen’s aunt. She is now in the hospital in critical condition.
The Senatobia Board of Aldermen announced on Tuesday that it would place the officer on leave after hundreds took to the streets to protest.
Atlanta Black Star reached out to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation for more information but hasn’t received a response. The Senatobia Police Department declined to answer our reporter’s questions.
