The chief of a police division in Mississippi the place an officer fatally shot 1-year-old Kohen Wiley outdoors a Walmart in June was fired from his submit on Tuesday after allegedly sending racist textual content messages.
Senatobia, Mississippi, Police Chief Harold Vanderford was fired Tuesday, in accordance with police.
The Senatobia Board of Aldermen and the police division didn’t instantly return ABC Information’ request for assertion relating to the rationale for the chief’s firing, whether or not the board’s vote was unanimous or whether or not the chief tried to resign earlier than being fired.
Vanderford has not responded to ABC Information’ request for remark.
The chief’s firing got here after The New York Times, Mississippi Right this moment and Verite Information reported that he had routinely used degrading language and racist slurs in opposition to Black folks in a collection of textual content messages relationship to final summer season.
Lawyer Ben Crump, who represents the household of Kohen Wiley, responded to the termination saying the Senatobia Board of Aldermen voted unanimously Tuesday to fireside the chief and the board declined to simply accept a resignation letter Vanderford submitted earlier that day.
“Eradicating this chief was the proper resolution, and the Senatobia Board of Aldermen deserves credit score for performing,” Crump mentioned in a press release obtained by ABC Information on Wednesday. “But it surely doesn’t reply the query Kohen’s household has been asking since June 14: what occurred to their child?”
Lawyer Ben Crump, at podium, is joined by members of Kohen Wiley’s household throughout a press occasion in Senatobia, Mississippi, June 22, 2026.
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Mayor Greg Graves and the Board of Aldermen met with Vanderford final week “in regard to a just lately revealed story surrounding non-public textual content messages that allegedly originated from his cell machine,” the town mentioned in a statement launched on Aug. 26.
That assertion went on to say: “The Chief voluntarily and willingly appeared earlier than the Mayor and Board of Aldermen and answered each query that was requested of him. The Chief’s responses have been honest, and he’ll proceed to serve the Metropolis with the arrogance that was positioned in him on the time that he was appointed as Chief.”
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which is main the investigation into the capturing demise of Wiey, has not launched any surveillance or physique digicam video of the incident.
Photographs of Kohen Wiley are proven throughout a press occasion in Senatobia, Mississippi, June 22, 2026.
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Wiley’s household attorneys known as for the MBI to launch video of the incident of their assertion on Wednesday.
The capturing occurred on June 14, after legislation enforcement officers responded to a shoplifting name in Senatobia, in accordance with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation. Officers who responded to a shoplifting name encountered two adults allegedly fleeing from the shop with a baby and going right into a automobile, in accordance with bureau.
Attorneys for the Wiley household mentioned that the adults have been accused of stealing diapers.
Officers tried to cease the automobile, with one opening fireplace when the driving force allegedly drove towards them, the bureau mentioned. The kid was killed and an grownup critically injured, officers mentioned.
One-year-old Wiley, his mom and a household good friend have been within the automobile on the time, in accordance with the household’s attorneys. Kohen was killed and the household good friend was critically injured, the attorneys mentioned.
ABC Information’ Sabina Ghebremedhin, Synai Ferrell and Meredith Deliso contributed to this report.
