Fatal shooting of one-year-old boy ignites tensions in Mississippi town

Death of Kohen Wiley is latest in series of troubling police encounters that have outraged community members

The recent fatal shooting of a 1-year-old boy by police who were responding to a shoplifting call has ignited simmering tensions between police and Black residents in the small town of Senatobia, Mississippi.

The death of Kohen Wiley is the latest in a series of troubling encounters with police that have outraged community members in recent years. It has led to protests and calls for greater police accountability in the town of 8,000, with some civil rights activists pointing to Kohen’s death as another example of a Black life lost over something of nominal value. In this case, it was an allegation of stolen diapers, which the boy’s family has denied.