Alabama woman, Marshae Jones who was five months pregnant and who lost her baby after being shot by another woman after starting a fight is charged with manslaughter.
Alabama authorities have indicted a woman whose unborn baby died after being shot (five times) in the stomach- the result of the woman allegedly provoking a fight with another woman over the child’s father.
Marshae Jones, 27, of Birmingham, was charged with manslaughter by a Jefferson County grand jury on Wednesday.
She has been remanded into custody, AL.com reported.
Marshae Jones has been charged with her unborn child’s death after someone else shot her during a fight. Authorities say Jones is responsible because she started the fight that ended with gunfire.@aldotcom: https://t.co/SIeqWDhLN9 pic.twitter.com/dYrwisKUSj
— HLN (@HLNTV) June 27, 2019
Authorities fail to get indictment against Ebony Jemison:
According to authorities, the incident took place at around noon on December 4, 2018.
Police were called following a shooting outside a Dollar General store in the Birmingham suburb of Pleasant Grove.
Witnesses said that the shooting victim, Jones, was driven to nearby Fairfield.
Officers then went to Fairfield and found Jones with a gunshot wound to the stomach. She was rushed to a local hospital.
It was later learned that Jones was five months pregnant. The fetus did not survive the shooting.
Investigators later learned that the shooting took place as a result of a dispute between Jones and Ebony Jemison, 23.
When authorities failed to secure an indictment against Jemison, they decided to seek charges against Jones. Police said Jemison was forced to defend herself after Jones initiated and pressed the fight.
‘The investigation showed that the only true victim in this was the unborn baby,’ Pleasant Grove police Lt. Danny Reid said at the time of the shooting.
‘It was the mother of the child who initiated and continued the fight which resulted in the death of her own unborn baby.’
According to Reid, Jones and Jemison got into an argument over the baby’s father.
‘Let’s not lose sight that the unborn baby is the victim here,’ Reid said.
‘She had no choice in being brought unnecessarily into a fight where she was relying on her mother for protection.’
Jones will be remanded to Jefferson County Jail, where she will be held on $50,000 bond.
Today, Marshae Jones was indicted for homicide when someone shot her in the stomach while she was pregnant, ending her pregnancy. They said she “started it.” The shooter went free. This what 2019 looks like for a pregnant woman of color without means in a red state. This is now.
— ilyse hogue (@ilyseh) June 27, 2019
Marshae Jones lost her child when she was shot during a 2018 dispute. Her shooter wasn’t charged, but she’s been indicted for the death of her fetus. Gilead is real and it will first come for Black people from working-class communities. https://t.co/ibgdKmUyXw
— Evette Dionne 🏁 (@freeblackgirl) June 27, 2019
Punished for being black?
The indictment has since caused some to wonder if authorities in seeking to bring criminal account for the child’s death going too far given the fact that Jones could not have foreseen the other woman using a gun – never mind that she did not pull the trigger.
The Yellowhammer Fund, which helps women get abortion services, issued a statement to AL.com Wednesday vowing to fight for justice for Jones, who the group said was wrongly charged.
‘The state of Alabama has proven yet again that the moment a person becomes pregnant their sole responsibility is to produce a live, healthy baby and that it considers any action a pregnant person takes that might impede in that live birth to be a criminal act,’ Executive Director Amanda Reyes said in the statement.“
‘Today, Marshae Jones is being charged with manslaughter for being pregnant and getting shot while engaging in an altercation with a person who had a gun. Tomorrow, it will be another black woman, maybe for having a drink while pregnant. And after that, another, for not obtaining adequate prenatal care,’ the statement said.
Reyes vowed to make sure that Jones is ‘released from jail on bond‘ and vowed to assist her with legal representation so that ‘she gets justice for the multiple attacks that she has endured.’
Welcome to being black in the deep south, 2019….
