Kansas City, MO. – The Missouri State Highway Patrol has launched an investigation after police repeatedly shot a pregnant woman in a store parking lot on Friday.
According to a witness who spoke with the Kansas City Star, 26-year-old Leonna Hale had her hands up and told officers she couldn’t get on the ground because she was pregnant moments before the officers shot her.
The shooting happened around 8 p.m. on Friday in the parking lot of a Family Dollar store in Kansas City, Missouri. According to officials, Kansas City Police officers received a report of a carjacking and the stolen vehicle was spotted in the store’s parking lot.
When police arrived at the scene, Hale was sitting in the car with a man. Officers suspected Hale and the man had been involved in a carjacking in a neighboring city and ordered them to get out of the vehicle, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
According to Shé Danja, a witness who was at the store and recorded the shooting, the man exited the vehicle and tried to flee the scene. Officers chased him. Shé Danja said when Hale got out of the car she had her hands raised in the air. When officers ordered Hale to get on the ground, Hale told them she couldn’t because she was pregnant. She then ran a few steps away from the officers, who responded by shooting her five times, Shé Danja said. Shé Danja wrote in a post on Facebook that Hale seemed “scared at them all coming towards her with guns in her face.”
“One, two, three, four, five. I remember it because it didn’t stop. They shot five times,” Shé Danja said during a phone interview Saturday with The Star. “I remember seeing her hit the ground and I froze.”
The cell phone footage shows Hale lying on the ground with blood on her shirt as an officer handcuffs her. According to Shé Danja, more than a few minutes went by before officers offered Hale assistance.
It’s unclear whether Hale was armed. Sgt. Andrew Bell of the Highway Patrol told local reporters on Friday that a “suspect” handgun was discovered in the parking lot after the shooting, but he did not specify then whether Hale herself had a weapon.
Hale was taken to the hospital with serious injuries but was in stable condition as of Friday night, according to Bell. According to the Kansas City Defender, she has a broken arm, a collapsed lung, and bullets lodged in her body.
The shooting remains under investigation by the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
@streetmediahype Kansas City Police Department shot an unarmed pregnant black woman 5 times. Then continue to put her in handcuffs #kansascity #viralvideos #viraltiktok #policeshooting #streetmediahype ♬ original sound – streetmediahype
