A family in Mississippi is demanding answers after a 1-year-old boy was fatally shot by police officers in a Walmart parking lot.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump announced the victim Kohen Wiley family’s plans to seek an autopsy and are asking police to release body cam footage and surveillance footage from the incident during a press conference on Monday, June 22.
The family wants an independent examination of the evidence in the case, while they do not want to rely solely on the findings from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation.
“They will not have to take anyone’s word for how baby Kohen died,” Crump said during the press conference. “They will have the truth examined by someone who answers to no one but the facts.”
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Crump added that the independent autopsy will help determine details about Kohen’s death, including entry and exit wounds and the direction from which he was shot.
Attorney and cocounsel Van Turner also asked authorities to release body camera footage from the officers involved in the shooting, as well as surveillance video from the parking lot.
“We’re following up behind what they are doing because we don’t trust them,” Turner said. “If they were trustworthy, the video footage would have been out days ago.”
The attorneys spoke on behalf of the family eight days after Kohen was killed during a police encounter outside of a Walmart in Senatobia.
The Mississippi Department of Public Safety previously said that officers responded to a shoplifting call on June 14, which was when they found two adults and a child allegedly leaving the area in a vehicle.
Officers attempted to stop the vehicle, but the driver allegedly nearly struck the officers when they drove in their direction. An officer then shot at the vehicle before those in the car left the scene.
The three people later arrived at a nearby hospital and Kohen was pronounced dead.
The victim’s family has disagreed with authorities’ account of the incident, and they claimed to FOX13 Memphis that officers “purposely just shot into the car.”
Wiley’s mother also spoke about the incident during the press conference. “I watched my baby take his first breath, and I watched my baby take his last breath,” she said. “I ask that you keep my family in your prayers and justice for baby Kohen.”
The Mississippi Department of Public Safety had no additional information to share when contacted by Us Weekly.
