SENATOBIA – Justice. Accountability. Transparency. 

The family of Kohen Wiley and supporters are calling for answers nearly two weeks after the 1-year-old was fatally wounded when police fired into a car in a Walmart parking lot here. 

Nearly 100 people gathered Friday morning at the store on U.S. 51 and marched about three miles through the city, passing by municipal offices before returning to the Walmart. They had planned to go to the Senatobia Police Department, but a closed road that was under construction prevented that. 

The family shared renewed demands: Total and full transparency, which includes the release of law enforcement body and dashboard video and footage from inside and outside the Walmart. They also called for the release of communication between police and the store leading up to and after the June 14 shooting. The incident that resulted in the killing of Wiley was sparked by a report of shoplifting for which no one has been charged. That information should be released to the family and its legal team, supporters said. 

“If I commit a crime and it’s on video, (I am) arrested and charged the same day,” said Marquell Bridges, an activist who is serving as the Wiley family’s spokesperson.

“Nothing takes six to nine months when you have all these cameras, all these angles,” he said in reference to how long state investigators said it will take to complete their investigation. 

READ MORE: Photos: March for Kohen Wiley in Senatobia

Kohen’s father, Davion Williams, stood at the front of the march, and he and others carried a banner with the child’s picture under the words “Rest in Heaven.”

In the afternoon, marchers returned to the Walmart and added the new banner to Kohen’s memorial, which is decorated with stuffed animals, toys, signs, flowers and a wooden cross bearing the child’s name. 

Kohen’s family attended his viewing Friday afternoon after the march. At a town hall meeting Friday evening  at Fairway Christian Church in Senatobia, many of the marchers, Kohen’s parents, Wiley family members and other community members attended a town hall where organizers and attorneys talked about sustained organizing and advocacy.

Four mothers who lost siblings and children in deadly law enforcement encounters offered advice to Kohen’s parents and extended their support.

“This is a club nobody wants to be a part of,” said Tracey Williams, whose son Breonte Johnson-Davis was tased to death by Florida police officers in 2023.

Among the mothers were those of children killed by Mississippi law enforcement officers: Bettersten Wade, whose son Dexter Wade was hit by an off-duty Jackson police officer on I-55 in Jackson and was buried unidentified in the Hinds County pauper grave, and Arkela Lewis, whose son Jaylen Lewis was shot and killed by Capitol Police in Jackson during a vehicle stop in 2022. 

The keynote speaker was political organizer Fred Hampton Jr., whose father was a Black Panther Party leader and was killed in his bed in an FBI raid in Chicago. Hampton Jr., chairman of the Black Panther Party Cubs, shared tips for organizing, including telling the crowd to pay attention to terms used to describe a situation and control the narrative. 

On June 14, Senatobia police officers and Tate County sheriff’s deputies responded to the store for a reported shoplifting and saw two women and a juvenile get into a car in the Walmart parking lot and start to drive away, state officials said. When the car allegedly drove toward law enforcement, an officer shot into the vehicle. 

“When in any state is petty larceny a death sentence?” asked march attendee Jacob Blake Sr., whose son Jacob was shot multiple times by a Wisconsin officer in 2020 and left paralyzed. In that case, state and federal investigations did not result in criminal charges for the officer. 

Neither Kohen’s mother nor the family friend who was driving and was critically wounded have been charged with the reported shoplifting of diapers and a bottle of water, according to the family’s attorneys.

Vellesiya Wiley, Kohen’s mother, has said she had the 1-year-old in her arms and was trying to tell officers that a child was present. Then Wiley said she heard three to four shots, one of which hit her son and others that hit the driver.

As of Friday, Bridges said the woman driver is recovering from the shooting and is moving again with a walker. 

Bridges, who organized the demonstrations, said the previous three protests over the shooting were peaceful, respectful and did not lead to arrests or violence, except for the first protest when law enforcement outside the store doors deployed tear gas to disperse the crowd.

He is among those who have called for a boycott of the store, which Bridges said is a way to apply pressure on law enforcement agencies in Senatobia and Walmart to release surveillance video leading up to and of the shooting, including footage from the store showing the alleged theft.

The Walmart closed Friday and its store entrances were blocked off by barricades. Walmart spokesperson Kelly Hellbusch said the company was aware of the planned demonstrations, which is why the decision was made to close the store. 

“We remain heartbroken by what happened at our store last Sunday,” she said in a Friday statement. “The safety of our associates and customers is our top priority. We continue to work closely with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations and are deferring to them on additional questions.” 

It is not clear who called for law enforcement the day of the shooting, including whether the caller was a store employee. Hellbusch did not answer questions about the relationship between the store and Senatobia police and Tate County Sheriff’s Department. 

She also did not say whether there is policy or guidance for store employees to determine whether to call law enforcement, including if someone is suspected of shoplifting.

Demonstrators included community members who brought their own homemade signs, and some residents from other parts of the state and Memphis. Some also traveled from the Midwest and California, including those from national and international organizations such as Black Lives Matter Grassroots and the Party for Socialism and Liberation. Legal observers and an individual who could render medical aid followed. 

At the beginning of the march, no law enforcement cruisers were seen outside the Walmart, where they had been stationed throughout the week. Later on, a Tate County sheriff’s deputy exited a cruiser and talked briefly with legal observers before following the march from the rear. In the afternoon, a few Senatobia police cruisers were parked along the march route. 

Interactions between demonstrators and the people they passed included some honking their horns, raising a fist or taking out their phones to record. 

About an hour into the march along East Main Street, a white man smoking a cigarette watched people pass by for about a minute until a demonstrator addressed him, saying she was marching because an officer shot a child. The man asked whether she was from town, and the Black woman said that didn’t matter. Then, a Black man who was also a demonstrator and the same man yelled at each other, before the white man extended his hand in a Nazi salute. 

Bridges said a Walmart boycott is part of an ongoing national effort. Nationally, boycotts and economic blackouts have been used in recent years against corporations including Walmart to drive economic and political change, according to the People’s Union USA. 

Walmart is the nation’s largest retailer with $713 billion in global sales revenue. Corporate tax filings show a $6.99 billion annual revenue across 86 Walmart stores in Mississippi, according to a research report by Capital One Shopping. 

Attorneys for the Wiley family previously said they were expecting to receive a preliminary autopsy report by Wednesday. But as of Friday, neither the legal team nor family spokesperson said whether Kohen’s family had received and reviewed a report yet. 

Earlier this week, the attorneys, Ben Crump and Van Turner, called for an independent autopsy separate from the one completed by the state to provide the family with clearer answers. 

If the completed autopsy by the state medical examiner determines the cause of death was homicide, it doesn’t mean anyone will be charged. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which examines all officer shootings, will report its findings to the attorney general’s office. From there, the attorney general’s office will review the officer’s use of force and present the case to a Tate County grand jury. There, jurors will determine whether to indict the officer on any criminal charges. 

Since 2022, few Mississippi law enforcement officers have been criminally charged in police shootings. The attorney general’s office has also cleared a majority of officers for their use of force. 

Other events scheduled for the weekend include a Saturday vigil at a park in Sardis at 6 p.m. and a Sunday afternoon community engagement event and neighborhood cookout in Senatobia. 

Update 6/26/26: This story has been updated to include comments at a Friday town hall meeting.