Family of 1-year-old boy fatally shot by Mississippi police says goodbye, as questions remain

Tucked in a casket with a stuffed animal, Kohen Wiley was remembered as a joy to his family’s world.

POPE, Miss. — Before the outcry, before the demands for justice, before he was placed inside a small casket with a stuffed Bluey, a family had looked forward to sharing simple moments with Kohen Wiley, who was just months away from his second birthday and named by his maternal grandma.

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Fishing trips with grandpa. Getting to know his cousins. The first day of school.

Those dreams ended June 14 in a Walmart parking lot in the north Mississippi city of Senatobia, about 40 miles away from Memphis, when 1-year-old Wiley was shot by police responding to a shoplifting call. Thirteen days later, after his mother watched him take his last breath, she walked into a rural Mississippi church holding a stuffed Bluey of her own to say goodbye to her baby boy.