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Kansas City police shot a black woman who was reportedly pregnant multiple times as they searched for a stolen vehicle on Friday.
Authorities say officers in two cars were following up on a call about an armed carjacking just before 8pm on Friday, after dispatchers provided the officers with a description of the vehicle and license plate.
The officers then apparently spotted the vehicle with two suspects inside at the parking lot of a Family Dollar store at Sixth and Prospect Avenues in Kansas City, and approached it.
At that point, authorities say, the male driver fled northeast as two officers pursued, and 26-year-old Leonna Hale stepped out of the car and allegedly told officers there was a gun in the car.
Two officers proceeded to fire at Hale, authorities say, and she suffered serious injuries and was taken to a local hospital – where she is reportedly in stable condition.
Leonna Hale, 26, was seen with blood stains on her shirt as a Kansas City Police officer handcuffed her on Friday night
Hale seemed to be laying in a pool of blood as the officers handcuffed her
Authorities say two officers shot at Hale while investigating a carjacking
Video taken by a witness nearby showed her lying on the ground in a pool of blood as more officers arrived on the scene – and one handcuffed her.Â
The woman who took the video, who only identified herself as Shedanja to the Kansas City Star, said Hale had her hands up and informed the officers at the scene that she was pregnant before they shot.
The male suspect, who has not yet been named, meanwhile, was also brought to a local hospital for an unrelated medical issue, KCTV reports.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol is now investigating the shooting, as it is protocol for an outside agency to investigate officer-involved shootings and, FOX 4 reports, the two officers involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave.
Shedanja was getting gas and ice cream nearby when the shooting happened, she told the Kansas City Star.
She said she first heard officers yelling ‘Get out of the car’ to two people who were in the vehicle parked next to hers, and the male driver fled before Hale exited her vehicle with her hands up.
Officers then approached Hale and reportedly told her to get on the ground, but she responded that she was pregnant, and could not lie on the ground.
Still, Shedanja said, police asked her to get down multiple times.
Hale later replied that there was a gun in the vehicle, Shedanja told the Star, and she started backing toward a fence in the parking lot.
That’s when, Shedanja said, officers approached her with their weapons drawn.
‘She did not pull out a weapon on them,’ Shedanja recalled to the Star. ‘She did not even have a stick in her hand.’
She said the officers then fired at Hale five times.
‘One, two, three, four five,’ Shedanja recounted. ‘I remember it because it didn’t stop. They shot five times.’
‘I remember seeing her hit the ground and I froze.’
One witness, who only identified herself as Shedanja, said Hale had her hands up and ran three steps away before she was shot
Shedanja said Hale did not have a weapon on her when the officers shot
Shedanja took a video of the aftermath showing Hale lying on the ground outside the Family Dollar store at Sixth and Prospect Avenues in Kansas City
She could be seen apparently crawling after she was injured in the shooting
In the aftermath, Shedanja decided to take a video showing Hale on the ground with blood on her shirt as cops surrounded her and closed off the parking lot.
One of the officers appeared to handcuff Hale as she lay on the ground and tried crawling.
‘They got her in handcuffs while they shot her y’all,’ Shedanja says in the video, explaining that she is originally from Louisiana and Arkansas and is just visiting the city when the scene unfolded.
‘I stopped here to get some gas, y’all, and my son just watched this. 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.
‘She was fixing to cooperate,’ Shedanja says of Hale. ‘She got scared, she ran down there, they shot her.’
‘She ran and they shot at her one, two, three, four.’
Cops soon tell Shedanja to leave the premises, but she replies that her sons are still in the store getting ice cream.
Shedanja later shared the video to Facebook, writing: ‘When she got out the car she put her hands up and was talking to them to show she didn’t have a weapon in her hand!!! She did run three steps away when she got scared at them all coming towards her with guns in her face.
‘That’s when she was shot that many times,’ Shedanja wrote, adding: ‘Keep in mind, they chased her [boyfriend] who jumped out of the vehicle and he was captured unharmed … while she was left there in the street literally still near the vehicle she got out of.
‘I’m literally in shock the whole video!’ she wrote. ‘I’m a whole medical assistant, and it’s literally not how you handle a gunshot victim who’s pregnant.’
Police remained on the scene of the Family Dollar parking lot Friday evening
Missouri Highway Patrol spokesman Andy Bell said a gun was found near the vehicle, but would not verify if Hale had the gun on her when the officers shot
Andy Bell, a spokesman for the Missouri State Highway Patrol, later informed reporters on the scene that a gun ‘was located’ near the vehicle, but would not say whether the victim was holding it at the time of the shooting, citing ‘intricate details that have to be followed up on.
‘Everything’s going to be analyzed, to be scrutinized by our officers,’ he said, noting that they will review body camera footage from the incident.
Interim Police Chief Joseph Mabin, meanwhile, told reporters that the department would be fully transparent with the highway patrol as the shooting investigation is conducted.
‘We never want to be in these types of situations – not the public, not the police department,’ he said. ‘Anytime anything happens like this, it’s a blight on our community.’Â
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