Two police officers resign after baby’s death in Mississippi
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Sowetan
Senatobia officer Hunter Foster and the city’s acting police chief in Mississippi resigned after the shooting death of one-year-old black child Kohen Wiley. The Mississippi attorney-general found the use of force justified, while the family is seeking a federal investigation, according to local authorities.
Hunter Foster, the Senatobia police officer who shot dead a one-year-old black baby in a Walmart car park in June, resigned from the police department of the Mississippi city on Friday. Angelica Maze, the acting police chief at the time, also left her post, local officials cited by Reuters said.
Foster had fired at a moving vehicle during an intervention over the alleged theft of nappies, killing one-year-old Kohen Wiley. Mississippi Attorney-General Lynn Fitch concluded this week that the use of force was justified and ruled out any criminal offence, Reuters reports.
Foster’s lawyer, Martin Zummach, told NBC News that the officer had resigned “for the good of the city and the police department” and to allow a healing process. The family’s lawyer, Ben Crump, is calling for an investigation by the US Department of Justice and says the resignation is not enough to establish responsibility.
The child’s mother and her friend, who were accused by the authorities of stealing nappies, were not charged. Senatobia’s former police chief, Harold Vanderford, was dismissed in September after the publication of messages containing racist insults aimed at black people, according to Reuters.
