Civil rights attorney Ben Crump calls for independent autopsy on Senatobia toddler shot by police

"We will be commissioning an independent autopsy for baby Kohen Wiley because this family deserves the truth," Crump wrote on social media, after holding a press conference in Senatobia. "We are calling on the Senatobia Police Department to release the body camera footage now."

Officials say police were pursuing a car with Wiley and two adults inside. A statement from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation claims an officer fired on the vehicle, killing Wiley, when the driver headed toward police. Wiley's mother maintains they were driving away.

Van Turner, a Memphis civil rights attorney working with Crump to represent the family, said they hope an independent autopsy will provide clarity on what happened.

"It appears that the bullet wound was on the right side of baby Kohen's rib cage and exited his left rib cage, which shows a side shot," Turner told MPB. "If that's the case, there's no way possible that this officer would have feared for his life because the kill shot was a side shot."

Public safety commissioner Sean Tindell previously told MPB that a typical investigation of an incident like this could take six to nine months and that MBI's findings would not be made public until the investigation is complete. 

"Our fear is that the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which says six to nine months before it releases the report, will wait until that long period of time before its autopsy report comes out along with the rest of their investigation," said Turner. "That's just too long."

Turner said that MBI has returned Wiley's body and that they hope to complete an independent autopsy within the next few weeks. 

In the meantime, attorneys for the family are continuing calls to release body and dash cam footage, as well as video from Walmart. 

"They simply need to release the footage because whether it's good or bad for them, good or bad for us, the point here is that the footage is what it is," said Turner. "It's much better to be transparent, as they said they were going to do, and release this footage so that we can digest it, deal with it and move forward."

Marquell Bridges, an activist in Alabama who's been doing community organizing in Senatobia in response to the shooting, said community members are also boycotting the Walmart where Wiley was shot, with the hope of putting economic pressure on the store to release its surveillance footage.

"The goal for everyone involved, everyone who has a hand, everybody in a position of power, is to show them that you are going to respect Black life, that our lives matter," said Bridges. "You're not just gonna go on as business as usual after you shoot dead a one-year-old baby Kohen Kartier Wiley in your parking lot."

And, Bridges said, the hope is that economic pressure will lead to pressure on local officials to address issues with transparency and local policing. 

"That is going to in turn make those corporate people call your mayor and your local people," said Bridges. "It's about putting pressure in the right places to make things move and that's what we're doing."

"We're using the tools that's available to us to affect this system." 

Several protests and memorials have been held at the Walmart since June 14, as well as a march held this past Saturday.