Footage of the shooting

Mississippi's Department of Public Safety released body-camera recordings on Thursday, 22 October, showing how an officer shot and killed a one-year-old boy on 14 June in the car park of a Walmart in Senatobia, a town about 65 kilometres south of Memphis, Tennessee. Officers from the Senatobia police were responding to a report of a shoplifting incident at the store. The recordings show several officers approaching a parked car with their weapons drawn. When the vehicle reversed into a parked car nearby, the officers ordered the woman at the wheel to stop. As the car then moved forward, Sergeant Hunter Foster stepped in front of it with his gun drawn, and he fired through the front passenger window, where the boy sat on his mother's lap.

Leaked clips and the state's finding

Short clips had circulated online on Wednesday, 21 October, before the official release, and Darkhorse Press, a Mississippi outlet, was the first to report the footage. On Monday, 19 October, Attorney General Lynn Fitch announced that the shooting was justified. The attorney general's office said a months-long investigation had found that Foster's use of force was appropriate and that no crime had been committed. The statement gave no reasoning for the decision, according to one Greek report. Foster's lawyer, Martin Zummach, said the sergeant 'had no choice' but to shoot at the vehicle because it was about to hit him.

The family's response

Ben Crump and Van Turner, who represent the family, held a press conference on Thursday at the Senatobia Church of Christ, shortly after relatives had viewed the footage. Crump called the footage 'excessive from the very start' and said the officers approached the women and the baby with guns drawn. He said the women were allegedly taking a pack of diapers, and that neither woman was ever arrested for shoplifting. Crump pressed the point during the press conference.

“We're the most prosperous nation in the world and we're going to draw guns to shoot people over misdemeanor allegations of baby diapers?”

The boy's paternal grandmother, Lasandra Williams, said she could not accept the finding after watching the recordings.

“After what I've seen today, I'm having a difficult time understanding the word 'justified.'”

Disputed details and open questions

Accounts differ on who was driving the car. Spanish-language reports describe a family friend at the wheel, while a Greek report says the mother's sister was driving. The same Greek report says the mother's lawyer stated that both women deny the shoplifting allegations and that neither has been charged over the incident. The mother has claimed that the officers knew a baby was in the car, since she had lifted him up during the incident. According to her lawyer, the officer involved had been reported for a racist remark two days before the shooting.

Next steps

The family's lawyers are calling for a federal investigation into the shooting. Crump said at the press conference that the boy would have turned two in early November. The boy's maternal grandmother said relatives learned of the decision from news reports and that no one from the attorney general's office had reached out to the family beforehand.