Shooting of 1-year-old Mississippi boy puts scrutiny on police department

The community of Senatobia is reeling after Kohen Wiley was fatally shot while police responded to a call in a Walmart parking lot.

The fatal shooting of a 1-year-old boy by police at a Walmart in Mississippi has sparked protests and demands for transparency in the state’s investigation after other incidents in the community in recent years have sown distrust with law enforcement.

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Some Senatobia residents told NBC News that they believe the local police department has escalated interactions with the public that generated unnecessary arrests or uses of force. The shooting Sunday in a Walmart parking lot that led to the infant’s death is only the latest instance that residents say must result in better police training.

“We lost a child because of carelessness, recklessness of the police,” said Breshari Faulkner, 27, who was born in Senatobia, a town of 8,500 people about 40 miles south of Memphis, Tennessee.