Mississippi's attorney general says a Senatobia officer was justified in firing into a car outside a Walmart, a shooting that killed a 1-year-old boy.

The state's entire public explanation is a few sentences: one officer, use of force justified, not enough evidence of a crime to put before a grand jury. The video that could test that conclusion has not been released, and the boy's mother has said she was never interviewed. Closing a criminal case does not close the questions. Expect the footage fight, and any civil lawsuit, to become the place where the rest of this story gets told.

The Mississippi Attorney General's Office has decided not to prosecute the police officer who fired into a car in a Senatobia Walmart parking lot in June, killing a 1-year-old boy who was sitting in his mother's lap, Mississippi Today, WAPT and FOX13 Memphis reported. In a brief statement on Monday, Oct. 19, 2026, Attorney General Lynn Fitch's office said it had completed its review of the June 14 incident, that it involved one officer with the Senatobia Police Department, and that it found the use of force was justified, according to WAPT. The review followed an investigation by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, the statement said.

WAPT and FOX13 Memphis reported that the attorney general's office told the head of the Mississippi Department of Public Safety there was insufficient evidence of criminal conduct to present the case to a grand jury, and that it was declining prosecution and closing the case. Interim Senatobia Police Chief Angelica Maze confirmed in a department statement that the case will be closed with no charges, FOX13 Memphis reported. The department asked residents to stay peaceful as the community responds to the decision, the station reported.

Officers had been called to the Walmart on a Sunday afternoon over a report of shoplifting involving diapers, the outlets reported. According to Mississippi Today, the boy's mother has said she was holding her son in the front passenger seat while a friend who was driving tried to back out of a parking space and then pulled forward to get away from officers. In the hours after the shooting, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation said police fired at the vehicle when it drove toward an officer, almost striking one, Mississippi Today reported. WAPT reported the driver was seriously wounded. Mississippi Today reported that bystander video shows five officers surrounding the slow-moving car in the parking lot, but that none of the video made public so far clearly shows the car or the officers when the shots were fired.

Mississippi Bureau of Investigation records identify Senatobia Police Sgt. Hunter Foster as the officer who was the subject of the investigation, and he was placed on administrative leave after the shooting, FOX13 Memphis and WAPT reported. Mississippi Today reported that the state has not formally named him as the officer who fired, but that he was the only officer present that day who was put on leave. Martin Zummach, a lawyer for Foster, told Mississippi Today the decision was expected and overdue. Mississippi Today also reported that Foster faced an internal complaint alleging he made a racially offensive remark toward a Black officer, and that former Police Chief Harold Vanderford was fired in September after reports that he used racial slurs in text messages.

Ben Crump, the civil rights attorney representing the boy's family, called on authorities to release the body-camera and surveillance footage. In a statement, Crump questioned how anyone could accept the state's conclusion when the family and the public still have not been allowed to see the body-camera footage, Mississippi Today and FOX13 Memphis reported. "If the footage supports the state's decision, release it," he said. Mississippi Today reported that several witnesses and the boy's mother said as recently as this month that investigators had never interviewed them, and that it was not clear if or when the video would be released.

No one has been charged in the boy's death, and the attorney general's decision means no criminal case will be brought against the officer. A decision not to prosecute is a judgment that the evidence would not support a criminal charge. It is not a finding by a judge or a jury about what happened in that parking lot. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.