Leadership changes follow state review
Senatobia Mayor Greg Graves told CNN that Foster had resigned, and City Clerk Katie Harbin said the officer turned in a resignation letter. Attorney General Lynn Fitch had announced on Monday that Foster’s use of force in the June shooting was justified.
Harbin said on Friday that Maze had resigned as interim police chief but would continue working for the department in a different role. The reports did not state why Foster or Maze resigned.
Videos document Walmart parking-lot encounter
The June 14 incident began as Senatobia officers and Tate County deputies responded to a shoplifting call at a Walmart. Surveillance video released by the Mississippi Department of Public Safety shows Kohen’s mother carrying him as she and a friend appeared to run to their vehicle. Body-camera footage shows a deputy attempting to open the driver’s door before the car backed out and struck another parked vehicle.
Officers are heard ordering the driver to stop. The vehicle then appears to head toward at least one officer. Foster, standing in front of the car near its passenger side, fires into it. Other body-camera footage records Foster later telling a law-enforcement official that he had not seen a baby inside. The Public Safety Department said Kohen died at a hospital and one of the women sustained critical injuries.
The department said the driver moved toward the officers and nearly hit one of them. Kohen’s mother disputed that account, according to an Associated Press report cited by CNN.
No prosecution; family contests finding
Fitch said the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation’s inquiry did not uncover sufficient evidence of criminal conduct to take the matter to a grand jury. Her office closed the case without bringing a prosecution.
Ben Crump, a civil-rights attorney representing the Wiley family, rejected the conclusion that the shooting was justified and said resignation could not substitute for accountability. Foster’s lawyer, Martin Zummach, welcomed the state’s decision and alleged that the driver had been trying to strike five officers, leaving Foster no choice but to fire.