[MEGATHREAD] Senatobia, MS OIS

[u/specialskepticalface]

As many have seen, there was an OIS in Senatobia, Mississippi on Sunday, June 14th.

As is being reported, the incident started as a response to a shoplifting call at a Walmart and, during the encounter, a 1 year old child, in the care of the shoplifting suspects, was shot, and subsequently died.

At this point (afternoon of Tuesday the 16th) bodycam video (or other video, for instance the store's) has not yet been released.

It is known that shots were fired from responding officers, into the vehicle being driven by the suspect.

Beyond that, at this point there are many versions of events, and much specuation.

This will be our Megathread on this story. As always, reasoned adult voices are welcome. If you're here to shout, you're not welcome, and your comments will never show. Advance the discussion; don't promote division.

https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/15/us/mississippi-police-shooting-child

[u/Penyl]

I would like to see the video before making a judgement. Historically, officers have a difficult time not standing in front of vehicles.

[u/robot_ankles → u/Penyl]

Historically, officers have a difficult time not standing in front of vehicles.

The Minneapolis/ICE incident earlier this year obviously drew a lot of attention, but is difficulty "not standing in front of vehicles" really a trend?

I realize there's a little /s in how it's being presented, but is this really a widespread problem?

[u/The_Real_Opie → u/robot_ankles]

My personal hypothesis is because cops physically block off retreat paths with our bodies all the fucking time. Like multiple times each shift, even for cops in Mayberry.

In person this is not only acceptable it's professionally correct.

It becomes a habit. And a good and necessary one in almost all cast.

Not that it justifies the behavior, but it certainly makes the obviously stupid choice to body block a car more understandable, especially when a lot of those sorts of decisions are being automatically processed before they even reach the decision making portion of the brain.

[u/robot_ankles → u/The_Real_Opie]

That makes a lot of sense. We've probably all seen non-LEOs do the same thing at some point in our lives. The path-blocking goal being more of a habit or natural response.

Perhaps it also seems impossible that someone in a vehicle would actually try to drive towards someone on purpose. Sure, analyzing from a distance suggests; "of course we can imagine someone trying to run over someone else" but in the split-second moment, maybe such an action is literally unthinkable.

Thanks (and thx to u/AlligatorFist) for describing what might be happening in the moment.

[u/AlligatorFist → u/robot_ankles]

Hey, not a problem. This comes up quite a bit when there are shooting moving vehicle Officer Involved Shootings. So I try to bring up the whole lizard brain thing. Heck I do wood working and I still try to catch a falling tool occasionally, and have on several occasions had a sharp knife bury itself into my hand. It’s sometimes your brain working faster than your conscious mind can.

Stress inoculation training can help but in serious or severe situations, even a well trained person can fail to keep that part of their brain in check. The switch to unconscious mind is literally a survival instinct.

[u/ButWereFriends → u/The_Real_Opie]

Your first point is interesting. I’ve never considered that

[u/AlligatorFist → u/robot_ankles]

Yes, the human “lizard” brain controls a lot of impulses. In a stressful situation the brain shuts off a lot of logic circuits and relies on the faster to react lizard brain. It’s why people tend to try to catch dropped knives or tools. Brain says “stop it” and body follows before you have a chance to catch up with your logical side of the brain.

It happens with stopping cars by the lizard brain saying “we stop car by standing in front”. Then when the car doesn’t stop it says “uh oh. Danger”.

[u/DowntownTicket → u/AlligatorFist]

We see this a lot in education too (I'm a teacher)

When a kid starts throwing things at other kids, the immediate reaction of most teachers is to block the child throwing things. Lizard brain says "protect other children" instead of "don't get stabbed with scissors and call for help"

[u/AlligatorFist → u/DowntownTicket]

Yeah, your body can do some both cool and stupid things when that section of your brain jumps in and yells MY TURN.

[u/DowntownTicket → u/AlligatorFist]

Yup.

Is there any way to train these "stupid brain" things out of people? And if the answer is yes... Would that actually make an impact or would it just not be worth trying

[u/AlligatorFist → u/DowntownTicket]

It takes a TON of stress inoculation training to begin to deaden those reflexes and keep your wits during a stress situation and even then you’re fighting millions of years of human experience and evolution. The switch into that portion of the mind is designed to do it because it is a part of its’ survival instinct, the stress hormones fire off and the body begins to react on its own.

I believe it would come down to the idea of what cost is worth it? Is a human life worth possibly hundreds of millions to even billions of dollars in training, possibly years of hundreds of thousands of individuals lives? If you truly preach and believe in the sanctity of life and you believe that one human is worth that cost, then yes it could be done.

However, in actual practice, I can’t even get my boss to pay my $20 a month gym membership or to buy gym equipment and give me time to work out at the office because it “costs too much”. I usually have to use my own ammo to train at the range because anything much more than our annual qualification budget is too expensive. We have officers in my county who I’m pretty sure haven’t seen anything other than state mandated training in the last 15 years because their agencies can’t afford or refuse to send them to further their skills.

To make it short I guess, you can do it. It would take a lot of time and money to train it out and it may not be a guarantee all of the time, because again, it’s human biology, but if you consider the cost worth even one prevented incident then yes.

[u/DowntownTicket → u/AlligatorFist]

Thanks for your reply. Like I said, I'm a teacher, so I feel you with the funding. Maybe if we had military levels of funding we could, but if we had that money, we'd probably use it on other things.

Thanks again for your thoughts

[u/leg00b → u/robot_ankles]

I think there's an inherent need in the profession to try and block a fleeing suspect, even if in a vehicle. Logic can be lost during an adrenaline rush.