Mississippi attorney general finds Senatobia officer's use of force justified in shooting that killed 1-year-old

As of 7:40 p.m. ET, Monday, Oct. 19, 2026

Mississippi's attorney general has found that a Senatobia police officer's use of force was justified in a June 14 incident, according to a statement from the attorney general's office on Monday. The officer fired at a moving vehicle in a shooting that killed a 1-year-old boy, The Associated Press reported.

The office said it had completed its review of the incident, which involved one Senatobia Police Department officer, and that the review followed an investigation by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, as required under Section 45-1-6 of the Mississippi Code. The one-paragraph statement did not name the officer or describe the shooting.

Officers were responding to a shoplifting call at a Walmart in Senatobia, about 40 miles south of Memphis, Tennessee, when they saw the boy's mother carrying him as she and a friend left the store, got into a car and began driving away, The Associated Press reported. Police believed the two women had stolen diapers and baby clothes, according to AP.

The boy's mother has denied that she or her friend stole anything, and neither woman has been charged with shoplifting or any other counts, according to online state and county court records, AP reported.

In a statement released shortly after the shooting, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation said officers tried to stop the vehicle but the car drove toward law enforcement, prompting an officer to fire into the car and strike the boy and his mother's friend, according to AP. The friend, who was driving, was badly wounded, authorities said, according to AP. In a video released days after the shooting, the boy's mother disputed that her friend drove toward the officers, AP reported.

Martin Zummach, a lawyer for the officer who fired the shot that killed the boy, said the attorney general's findings cleared his client of criminal wrongdoing and that the driver "tried to kill" his client and other officers who were present, AP reported. "He had no choice but to fire his weapon," Zummach told AP.

Ben Crump, a civil rights lawyer representing the boy's family, has said results of a preliminary independent autopsy indicate the boy was shot from the side of the car, not the front, AP reported.

Authorities have not released body-camera footage of the encounter, according to AP. In a statement Monday, Crump questioned how anyone could accept the attorney general's conclusion when the boy's family and the public had not been allowed to see the footage. "If the footage supports the state's decision, release it. We will not stop fighting until this family gets the truth," Crump said.

John P. Gross, an expert on police use of force on moving vehicles, told AP that if the vehicle had been moving toward officers, the best practice would have been for them to get out of the way. "This shooting was almost certainly unjustified," Gross said.

A photo of the car after the shooting shows the passenger window shattered and an apparent bullet hole in the windshield on the passenger side, AP reported. Charles "Joe" Key, a firearms and ballistics expert and former Baltimore police lieutenant who typically testifies in defense of police, said the image suggests the officer fired from the side. "That indicates that the officer who did the shooting was not personally at risk at the time he shot," Key said. "The body-worn camera's going to have to tell if anybody was in danger," he added.