Leonna Hale Kansas City, Missouri pregnant black woman suspected of carjacking shot 5 times by cops. Incident caught on video.
What if she was white? An unarmed pregnant black woman involved in a suspected carjacking was shot up to 5 times by police in Kansas City, Missouri according to witnesses and video of the unfolding incident.
Leonna Hale, 26, was shot while allegedly in the process of carrying out a carjacking with a male accomplice KCTV reported.
The shooting left the pregnant woman suffering serious injuries and now in stable condition in hospital. The woman’s family said Hale with a broken arm, a collapsed lung, along with 2 bullets remaining lodged inside her body.
According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP), Kansas City Police Department (KCPD) officers confronted the pair of suspects in the parking lot of a Family Dollar store, Friday night, circa 8p.m. The male suspect reportedly jumped out of the car and ran away, while Hale stayed and put her hands up.
‘She did not pull out a weapon on them,’ a witness going by only her first name, Shedanja told the Kansas City Star. ‘She did not even have a stick in her hand.’
Pregnant woman, Leonna Hale shot in Kansas City After running three steps away. She was mistaken for a carjacking suspect in a parking lot because the vehicles matched. I think the uvalde shooting showed us that police are scary pic.twitter.com/A1yBvQVJTP
— Negative⛔Ass⛔Shon (@NegativeAssShon) May 30, 2022
‘I remember it because it didn’t stop.’
According to the female witness, officers repeatedly commanded Hale to get down on the ground, while the suspect attempted to explain she could not do so because she was pregnant.
As they argued back and forth, Hale told police there was a gun in the car. Eventually she began backing up toward a fence, and the police allegedly approached her with their guns drawn.
Apparently panicking, the woman finally turned and attempted to run. Just three steps in, Shedanja said, the police shot her.
‘One, two, three, four, five,’ the witness recalled, counting the gunshots. ‘I remember it because it didn’t stop.’
Video taken by Shedanja, showed Hale lying on the ground with her hands behind her back and what appears to be blood on her shirt. According to the witness, the bleeding pregnant woman was handcuffed while lying on the pavement.
‘They got her handcuffed,’ Shedanja narrates. ‘Why they shot her, y’all?’
Police say the Missouri State Highway Patrol is investigating the incident.
‘We never want to be in these types of situations,’ interim KCPD chief Joseph Mabin told reporters. ‘Not the public, not the police department. Any time anything happens like this, it’s a blight on our community. I want to assure the public that the scene is secure. There’s no ongoing threat. The Highway Patrol will be investigating this incident. We’re committed to being 100% transparent, and fully cooperating with the Highway Patrol.’
The male driver who allegedly fled was not immediately identified. He was arrested after a chase and also taken to a hospital for an unrelated medical issue, according to local reports.
