On November 7th in Independence, Missouri, a tragic incident unfolded when police responding to a domestic dispute shot and killed mother Maria Pike and her two-month-old baby, Destinii Hope.
KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI
Thirty-four-year-old Maria Pike and her two-month-old baby, Destinii Hope, were shot by Independence police officers after Destinii’s grandmother, Talisa Coombs, made a 911 call reporting a domestic dispute at the Oval Spring Apartments in Independence.
According to Talisa, she was assaulted by her son’s girlfriend during a heated argument. However, when the police arrived, things escalated, and Talisa said, “I wanted her arrested for assault, not executed.”
When the police arrived, Talisa was downstairs and told them that she had been assaulted by her son’s girlfriend. The police asked if there were any weapons, to which she responded, “No, but my granddaughter is upstairs with her mother.”
Footage from the apartment shows the officer leading the way into the building with a gun in hand, and another officer sprinting upstairs with a rifle.
Maria’s boyfriend and Destinii’s father, Mitchell Holder, spoke to The Kansas City Defender in his first interview since the horrific killings. His voice trembled as he recounted the events that unfolded that day.
“Yes, I was in the room when it all happened,” he began. “From what I could see, I never once saw Maria armed with anything. I honestly don’t even know where that came from. I’ve heard crazy things like that she was holding the baby hostage in a closet, that she had a knife, all this crazy stuff that’s not true. I mean, all I can say is it’s possible she had a knife and somehow I didn’t see it, but all I know is I never saw her holding anything and I was right there in the room.”
Holder also said that when the police arrived, he asked if they could talk through the door because he didn’t want his daughter Destinii around the cops with armed rifles, but ultimately, they entered the room.
Holder described the horrific scene, saying, “It looked like her head exploded. Her blood splattered across my glasses and all over me. All I could do was scream. I just kept saying three words the same three words ‘YOU KILLED HER!'”
Holder further stated that after the police shot the baby in her mother’s arms, Maria stood up, and the officer got scared and shot Maria in the hips. She was bleeding, but the cop didn’t try to stop the bleeding, and Holder thinks she died from choking on her blood.
Police claimed that Maria had a knife when they arrived, but Holder, who was also in the room, said that he didn’t see any knife in Maria’s hand.
Holder’s father said that the truth will come out when the body cam footage is released, which will show whether or not Maria had a weapon. He also said that even if she had a knife, there was no need to shoot, as two big officers with bulletproof vests could have easily taken a knife away from a 100-pound woman.
A neighbor, Bug Arnold, who witnessed the horrific incident, said that the police led with their guns the entire time, from the moment they got out of the car, as if they were ready to kill.
Destinii’s aunt, Felisha, has created a GoFundMe to support the funeral costs for baby Destinii.
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