Independence, Mo. (AP) – A public prosecutor has refused to submit criminal prosecution against a Missouri police officer who shot and killed a woman and her child last year.
Independence police officers had responded to an apartment building in November to a reported attack. They came out how to arrest the woman, who was non -verbal and communicated with nodding and gestures, when she abruptly grabbed a butcher's knife from a bedside table and walked to the officers while she held the child, said the office of the public prosecutor Melesa Johnson on Friday.
One officer walked back, but the other was against a cupboard and could not escape, said Johnson's office. He shot four shots while the woman walked towards him with the knife, the office said. The shots hit and killed the wife and her child, identified by Kcur News as the 34-year-old Maria Pike and her 3-month-old daughter, Destinii.
Johnson's office said that the use of deadly power by the officer “falls under the protection of the law.”
Her office also noted that there was not enough evidence to deliberately shoot the child.
“The evidence shows that the shooting officer shot the citizen who held the child,” said public prosecutors in a statement.
“We did not come to this decision. The loss of a young mother and her baby is devastating and tragic, “said Johnson. “As an prosecutors, however, we are bound by an oath to apply the law and to analyze facts without being led by the sympathy we feel for all those affected. Our goal is to determine whether what was done was reasonable, defined by the law of Missouri, and not whether it was the best way to act. “
