Kansas police officer shot a black pregnant woman despite of having her hands up.

 

Kansas white police officer  shot a black pregnant woman despite of having her hands up.

By Edward Era Barbacena

A Black pregnant woman was shot five times by Kansas City police despite having her hands up, according to a witness.

KCTV first reported that Missouri State Highway Patrol is investigating an officer-involved shooting that occurred on Friday. Highway Patrol said that officers in the Kansas Police Department spotted a vehicle at a Family Dollar that was suspected of being stolen.

A witness named Shédanja later told The Kansas City StarThe Kansas City Star that she had seen the shooting and recorded a video of the aftermath.

The woman exited the car with her hands up, Shédanja said. Officers told the woman to get on the ground, but the woman told them she was pregnant, Shédanja said, and couldn’t get down on the ground. Police asked her to get down multiple times. The woman then told police there was a gun in the vehicle. The woman started backing toward a fence in the parking lot. Several officers approached her and had their weapons drawn, Shédanja said.

“She did not pull out a weapon on them,” Shédanja recalled. “She did not even have a stick in her hand.”

The witness can also be heard narrating in a video she recorded at the scene.

"They got her in handcuff while they shot her, y'all," Shédanja says in the video. "I stopped here to get some gas, y'all, and my son just watched this [shooting]. My one-year-old son just watched this! My 10-year-old son just watched this! And my 13-year-old son just watched this happen!"

"She was fixing to cooperate," she added. "She ran and they shot her. One, two, three, four!"

A spokesperson for the Missouri State Highway Patrol said that a gun "was located" at the scene but he would not say if the gunshot victim was holding it.

"How the sequence of events transpired, there's going to be intricate details of events that transpired, right?" the officer said.