Police used ‘justified’ force in fatal shooting of one-year-old, says Mississippi attorney general

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Kohen Wiley was killed in June while sitting on his mother's lap in the passenger seat of a car that police say was being driven at officers in the city of Senatobia.

Authorities have said they were called about a report that nappies and baby clothes were allegedly stolen.

His mother has denied the allegations. Neither she nor the driver of the vehicle have been charged with a crime. A lawyer for the Wiley family denounced the attorney general's findings on Monday and called for the release of footage from the incident.

Police were called to a Walmart store on 14 June after a report of baby supplies being allegedly stolen. According to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, officers arrived to find two women and a child walking towards a car.

Officers tried to stop the vehicle but it was allegedly driven at one of them, nearly striking an officer. One officer opened fire, fatally striking the boy and critically injuring the driver, Latoya Ferrell.

Kohen's mother, Vellesiya Wiley, has denied she or Ferrell were stealing and said she lifted her son up from her lap to show officers he was there before he was hit by gunfire.

"In this incident, the Attorney General's Office found the use of force was justified," Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch wrote in a short statement on Monday.

Police have not released any footage from the shooting, including from officer-worn body cameras or CCTV recordings taken from the parking lot.

The Wiley family's lawyer Benjamin Crump objected to Fitch's finding, saying: "How can anyone accept that conclusion when Kohen's family and the public still have not been allowed to see the body-camera footage?"

"If the footage supports the state's decision, release it," he continued. "We will not stop fighting until this family gets the truth."

Martin Zummach, a lawyer for the officer who fired the shots, told the Associated Press the driver had "tried to kill" his client.

"He had no choice but to fire his weapon," Zummach said.

The death, which happened on the Juneteenth US holiday, which recognises the end of slavery in the US, triggered protests in Senatobia.

Protesters have alleged that race played a role in the investigation. Kohen and both women are black, while the officer that fired the shots is reportedly white.

Last month, the city fired its white police chief after newspapers unearthed text messages that found him repeatedly using racial slurs.