A Mississippi police officer who fatally shot a one-year-old boy when his mother was allegedly caught shoplifting has resigned from the force despite being cleared of wrongdoing.
Officer Hunter Foster, 32, left the Senatobia Police Department on Friday, following an investigation into the controversial shooting of toddler Kohen Wiley outside a Walmart on June 14, officials say.
Foster opened fire in the store's parking lot after the infant's mother Vellesiya Wiley and her friend Latoya Ferrell were allegedly caught shoplifting and attempted to flee from security.
Footage of the chaotic incident released this week showed the two women sprinting away from officers when they were accused of stealing, before Ferrell allegedly accelerated her car at officers during their getaway.
Officers were seen surrounding the vehicle and yelling 'Stop the car!' moments before the vehicle lurched forward, leading Foster to fire several shots into the vehicle.
Kohen was tragically killed after being hit in the torso, and Ferrell was hospitalized in critical condition after being hit twice. Her sister told the Daily Mail on Friday that her recovery had been 'touch and go,' and she still had a 'bullet inside her' as she faced the possibility of further surgeries.
The footage was released as Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch announced Foster and the other officers would not face charges, as authorities had determined the shooting was 'justified.'
Despite learning he would not be charged this week, on Friday Foster decided to turn in his resignation letter and quit law enforcement, Senatobia mayor Greg Graves told CNN.
Senatobia Police officer Hunter Foster, right, has resigned from the police force days after being cleared by authorities over the fatal shooting of a one-year-old boy in June
The fatal shooting of one-year-old Kohen Wiley outside a Walmart in Senatobia, Mississippi in June by a police officer was officially determined to be 'justified', officials said this week
Foster declined to comment on his resignation when contacted on Friday by the Daily Mail. The former officer referred to his attorney Martin Zummach, who said in a statement that Foster stands behind his decision to fire his weapon.
'The driver of the vehicle was attempting to kill those 5 officers, and Hunter Foster had no choice but to discharge his weapon,' Zummach said.
'We are very sad for the loss of life, but the outcome of the investigation was not only expected, but it was overdue.'
In the footage of the incident released this week, an unidentified man was seen sounding the alarm over the alleged shoplifting by running into the Walmart security office and yelling, 'Two women are running.'
A group of officers then sprang into action and ran out the front of the store, chasing down the two women to their car in the parking lot.
Police said they suspected the women of stealing diapers, however, neither Wiley or Ferrell have been charged with shoplifting or any other crime in connection with the shooting.
The video showed the car appear to lurch forward at the officers as they surrounded Wiley and Ferrell, and Wiley claimed that she picked her baby boy up to show him to the officers in the moments before Foster opened fire.
The footage also captured the moment that Foster was told he had shot a baby, where the cop told his fellow officers: 'I didn't even see a baby in her f***ing lap.'
The footage showed Wiley's mother running out of the Walmart with the infant in her arms
Chaotic bodycam footage showed officers sprint out of the Walmart and confront Wiley and Ferrell in their vehicle after the two women were allegedly caught shoplifting
The footage showed officers surround the vehicle and yell 'Stop the car!' moments before it lurched forward, leading Foster to pull the trigger
The infant's mother Vellesiya Wiley and her friend Latoya Ferrell were allegedly caught shoplifting and attempted to flee from security
While officials said this week that Foster's decision to shoot was found to be 'justified,' the conclusion of the investigation into Kohen's death did little to calm outrage over the shooting from the boy's family.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the family, slammed the official report at a press conference on Thursday, branding the shooting 'excessive from the very start.'
Crump argued the officers should not have drawn their weapons to deal with an alleged shoplifting case.
'They came out with guns drawn for a shoplifting misdemeanor,' Crump said.
'The bullet that killed 1-year-old baby Kohen Wiley was not justified.'
The attorney added: 'Diapers are something a mother needs for a child. Diapers should never cost a baby their life.
'This decision sends a message that a Black baby boy, his life is not as valuable as the white diapers that he is wrapped in.'
The infant was fatally shot in the ribcage and was pronounced dead at a local hospital
A bullet hole can be seen in the passenger side of the vehicle
After Foster was identified as the officer involved in the shooting, it emerged that he had been disciplined by the police department for allegedly using a racist remark in front of a co-worker just two days prior.
An eight-year veteran of law enforcement, Foster was previously a deputy with the DeSoto County Sheriff's Office, where he was named in a lawsuit alleging he and other deputies used 'unreasonably force' on a woman during a traffic stop.
That incident allegedly saw deputies knock out the woman's teeth and break her jaw. Foster's attorney denied the allegations, and a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit in March, reports Mississippi Today.
Source link
