The moment a Missouri mother and her 2-month-old girl were shot dead by a police officer has been made public through body camera footage.
One police officer pulled his gun after Maria Pike, brandishing a knife, surged at them. Bodycam footage from the November 7 incident, which took place inside Pike’s Independence, Missouri, house, was made public on Wednesday, November 27.
According to reports, Pike and Destinii’s paternal grandmother, Talisa Coombs, got into a violent confrontation before the shooting. It is believed that Coombs voiced worries about the baby’s wellbeing.
During the altercation, Coombs claimed Pike yanked her hair and threw objects at her. Additionally, she said that when Coombs went to see how Destinii was doing, Pike attempted to shove her down the stairs.
Coombs called Independence police and the Children’s Division of the Missouri Department of Social Services, according to KCTV.
In order to help Pike seek therapy for postpartum depression, family members hoped that authorities would detain her.
Independence officers can be seen approaching Coombs and her husband, Brian Coombs, outside a building at the Opal Springs Apartments in body camera footage from the incident.
Pike was found cradling her daughter in a cupboard after police were granted permission to enter her house.
Pike and the police chatted for eleven minutes. An officer can be heard in the footage inquiring as to if she was injured. Pike nodded her head in response.
Pike refused to let her daughter go when Independence police asked her to. Rather, she took a seat on the bed, and her daughter’s father, Mitchell Holder, took a seat at the foot.
Then, while still holding her infant, Pike was spotted picking up the knife. She lunged at an officer after raising the knife above her head.
It’s unknown how many times the officer fired his firearm because the bodycam film ends before any rounds are fired.
I want to be held accountable. “I want the cop to take responsibility,” Pike’s sister, Nina Book, told Fox 4 Kansas City. While the Police-Involved Incident Team investigates, the three officers who answered Coombs’ call are on administrative leave.
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