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Mississippi's attorney general has determined that a police shooting that left a toddler dead in June was a justified use of force. Elise Catrion Gregg of the Gulf States Newsroom and Mississippi Public Broadcasting has a response from parents and politicians.
ELISE CATRION GREGG, BYLINE: One-year-old Kohen Wiley was shot during a police pursuit after a shoplifting call from a Walmart in Senatobia, a city in North Mississippi. Officers began pursuing two adults in a vehicle in the parking lot. Police claim one of the adults drove toward officers. That's when one officer fired at the car, hitting Wiley. Wiley's mother, who was a passenger, denies that the driver headed toward police. Now the attorney general's office says it won't prosecute the officer who fired the fatal shot. The Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus has condemned the AG's action, demanding the release of video footage. Here's Chairman Representative Kabir Karriem.
KABIR KARRIEM: A 1-year-old baby was shot to death by law enforcement. The family deserves the truth. They deserve an explanation. They need to see the evidence that led to a ruling.
GREGG: The AG's three-sentence statement offered little insight into how the review was done or what factors made the shooting a justified use of force. After Wiley's death, records obtained by Mississippi Today and The New York Times found that the white officer involved in the shooting had made a racist remark to a colleague just days before the incident. And the Senatobia Police chief was ousted when Mississippi Today reported he had routinely used racist language and slurs in private text messages. Karriem says that's a major factor in this case.
KARRIEM: The state is mourning. The police department needs to have an investigation on it with its known racist environment.
GREGG: The family's attorney, Van Turner, calls the AG's statement, quote, "perplexing."
VAN TURNER: We had hoped that we wouldn't see what we're seeing today, but it's not like we haven't seen this happen in the past. So we just have to press forward.
GREGG: Turner says they're looking for other avenues of legal recourse, including in federal and civil court.
For NPR News, I'm Elise Catrion Gregg in Jackson, Mississippi.
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