Follow-Up: Officer Who Fatally Shot 1-Year-Old in Mississippi and Interim Police Chief Both Resign

Officials in Senatobia, Mississippi, said on Friday, October 23, that Hunter Foster, the police officer who fatally shot 1-year-old Kohen Wiley in a Walmart parking lot in June, has resigned, and that the city's interim police chief, Angelica Maze, has also stepped down. (GSM, via Reuters)

Senatobia Mayor Greg Graves said on Friday that Foster had resigned from the Senatobia Police Department, without specifying whether he was asked to resign or did so on his own. Maze, the department's interim chief, also stepped down, according to a resignation letter reported by local media. Foster's lawyer, Martin Zummach, told NBC News that his client "resigned for the good of the city and the police department and to permit the process of healing."

The shooting took place in mid-June. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation said officers responded to a shoplifting call at Walmart and encountered two adults and a juvenile child fleeing into a vehicle. Officers attempted to stop the vehicle, but the driver drove in their direction, the bureau said, and an officer then discharged his weapon as the vehicle fled. Foster's shot struck 1-year-old Kohen Wiley, who was killed. Released footage showed Foster running out of the Walmart with other officers after an employee said suspected shoplifters were attempting to flee. Officials have alleged the child's mother and her friend stole diapers; the two women have not been charged.

Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch said earlier this week that "the use of force was justified" and cleared the officer of criminal wrongdoing, a decision GSM reported along with the family's response after body-camera footage was released. Prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents the child's family, said the family is calling for a Department of Justice investigation and that accountability cannot end at the officer's resignation. "No mother should have to bury her baby over an allegation of shoplifting diapers," Crump said on Friday.

The Senatobia department has seen further turmoil: former chief Harold Vanderford was fired in September after media outlets reported he had used racist slurs against Black people in text messages. No successor arrangements following the resignations of Foster and Maze have been announced.

Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)

Photo: Senatobia 市中心 Main Street 实景（资料图）。照片：Wikimedia Commons，CC BY-SA 3.0

Latest in States

Kilauea's Episode 56 Lava Fountaining Forecast for November 3-10 as the Summit Keeps Inflating2026-10-31Man Critically Injured in Early-Morning Cutting in Downtown Omaha; One Man Arrested2026-10-31