After the Cameras Leave: Baby Kohen Deserves the Truth

By Rep. Kabir Karriem, Chairman, Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus

There are moments in life that transcend politics. There are moments when titles no longer matter. In those moments, we are simply mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, neighbors and human beings.

The death of one-year-old Kohen Kartier Wiley is one of those moments. His life mattered.

As a father who lost my own daughter, Aeiriol Nicole Karriem, in a tragic automobile accident when she was only two years old, I know something about the unbearable silence that follows the loss of a child. My daughter’s death occurred under entirely different circumstances, but grief has a language all its own. It is a pain that changes you forever.

That is why I felt compelled to drive nearly three hours to Senatobia, MS to attend Kohen’s visitation at West Gilmore Street Church of Christ on June 26.

I did not go as Chairman of the Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus alone. I went as a father. I went because no parent should have to bury a child.

When the funeral ends, the flowers will eventually fade. Family members will slowly return to work. News cameras will pack up and move on to the next story. Television trucks will disappear. But the pain remains.

Baby Kohen has been received by the ancestors. His family, however, awakens each morning to an empty crib, an empty room, and questions that have yet to be answered. That is why this moment cannot be allowed to wither away from Mississippi’s conscience.

This is not simply about one family. It is about whether every Mississippian can have confidence that when a child dies during an encounter involving law enforcement, the investigation will be thorough, impartial, and transparent.

Truth cannot exist without transparency. Transparency is not the enemy of law enforcement. Transparency protects both the public and the officers who faithfully serve with integrity. It builds trust where distrust exists. It allows facts, not speculation, to prevail.

The people of Senatobia deserve to know exactly what happened. Kohen’s family deserves to know exactly what happened. Mississippi deserves to know exactly what happened.

I join the growing number of clergy, civil rights organizations, elected officials, and community leaders calling upon Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell and Attorney General Lynn Fitch to ensure that this investigation is conducted with complete transparency. The public deserves timely, factual information about the investigation, and the family deserves clear answers as they seek justice and healing.

This is not about rushing to judgment, rather refusing to rush to silence. 

Our state has witnessed too many families searching for answers after tragic encounters involving government authority. Regardless of where the evidence ultimately leads, confidence in the outcome depends upon confidence in the process. That process must be open, credible, and worthy of the public’s trust.

As Chairman of the Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus, I remain committed to standing with families who seek accountability, fairness, and justice under the law. We will continue to advocate for processes that value every life and strengthen public confidence in our institutions.

May God comfort Kohen’s family. May He strengthen the people of Senatobia. And may He grant our state both the courage to seek the truth and the wisdom to pursue justice wherever that truth leads. 

For in the end, justice delayed deepens grief. Truth, honestly pursued, is the first step toward healing for justice cannot exist without truth.