A Mississippi community is grieving after a 1-year-old boy was killed in an alleged officer-involved shooting outside a Walmart over the weekend.
The shooting happened Sunday, June 14, outside a Walmart in Senatobia, Mississippi, after police responded to a report of shoplifting, according to the Mississippi Department of Public Safety.
The department said officers with the Senatobia Police Department and deputies with the Tate County Sheriff’s Office were allegedly involved in the shooting. The Tate County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to PEOPLE that its deputies were present.
The child was not identified by name in statements from state officials or Senatobia police, but a GoFundMe and local outlet WREG identified him as 1-year-old Kohen Wiley.
According to the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, officers responded to the alleged shoplifting call and found two people and a juvenile allegedly fleeing in a vehicle.
When officers tried to stop the vehicle, the driver allegedly “drove in the direction of the officers, almost striking one,” the agency said.
An officer allegedly fired a shot before the vehicle left the scene.
The three people in the vehicle then went to a nearby hospital, where Kohen was pronounced dead.
Witnesses described a chaotic and devastating scene outside the store.
One witness told WREG that officers were waiting in the parking lot when two women walked out of Walmart. The witness said one woman was holding Kohen and another was holding a box of diapers.
Another witness told the outlet that officers ran through the parking lot after the car as it drove away.
Kohen’s death has left his family and the surrounding community heartbroken.
“It didn’t have to happen this way. It could’ve been handled differently,” LiCole Wiley, a relative of the child, said.
A fundraiser has been created to help Kohen’s family with funeral expenses and to support them as they grieve.
The investigation remains ongoing.
