Police Tear Gas Protesters After Killing 1-Year-Old in Mississippi
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On Tuesday, hundreds marched through downtown Senatobia, Mississippi, in protest of the police murder of 1-year-old Kohen Wiley two days prior.
Police responded to the protest, which stopped in front of the local Walmart and continued to grow in size, by teargassing the protesters.
On Sunday afternoon, police officers shot and killed 1-year-old Kohen in a car outside of the Walmart. Police claim that they were responding to a shoplifting call. After trying to stop the baby’s mother and her friend from getting into their car, the police officers shot at the car, killing the baby and injuring the friend.
Kohen’s family has hired prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump to represent them. Crump said that the friend had been shopping for diapers, and was accused of stealing them, leading to a call to the police.
In a video released Wednesday, Crump spoke with Vallesiya Wiley, the baby’s mother. Wiley said that the police had tried to stop her friend who was with her, but that she continued walking toward the car with her baby because she was not involved in the dispute. Once she and her friend began to back out in the car, multiple officers came toward the car with their guns drawn, she said.
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“I raised my baby up, trying to show that he [a baby] was in the car,” she........
