It took three weeks for the Independence Police Department to provide additional details about the killing of 34-year-old Maria Pike and her two-month-old baby by an officer.
The day before Thanksgiving, Independence Police finally released some body camera footage, albeit highly edited, of the incident.
The video shows about three minutes of a 20-minute incident on Nov. 7, 2024, where officers responded to a domestic disturbance call at the Oval Springs Apartments on Larkspur Lane.
Warning: Some parts of this video may be disturbing.
According to the video's time stamps, officers arrived at 1:55 p.m. where they encountered the baby's grandmother outside.
“What’s going on?" an unidentified IPD officer asks. "I called my son and asked him if it’s okay for me to come up here to see my granddaughter,” she replies, according to the body cam audio.
The video shows officers entering the apartment building, talking briefly with the apartment manager and then entering Pike's unit. There, they find Pike, unarmed, in a closet holding her baby, who was identified by local organizations as two-month-old Destinii Hope.
"Hi there, what's your name," another unidentified officer asks Pike. The officers asks if she is hurt and Pike shakes her head no.
The provided body cam footage includes very few words exchanged between officers and Pike. Text in the IPD's video says that officers asked Pike to put down Destinii. "The repeated attempts failed, and she exited the closet, walked past the officers, and sat on the bed next to the nightstand," IPD stated.
Pike's husband, Destinii's father, sits at the foot of the bed. The video jumps ahead in time at several points.
11 minutes after officers enter the apartment, according to time stamps, the video shows Pike grabbing a large knife and moving toward an officer with the knife above her head.
However, that is when the video stops. This is how the IPD described what happened next: "As a result, one officer fired at the female and both she and the infant sustained fatal injuries."
Independence Police has not identified the officer who killed Pike and Hope. The department has not released details about what happened after the video freezes — including what the officers said, when and where the shots were fired, or what actions officers took to provide medical care after the shooting.
The day after the incident, Independence Police Chief Adam Dustman that the officer who fired was a “long-tenured veteran of law enforcement."
Officials said that three officers involved are currently on administrative leave.
"The Independence Police Department has been and will continue to be as transparent as legally permitted," the department said in a Facebook post Wednesday. "IPD fully understands the demand surrounding the events of that day and we will continue to fully cooperate with the outside investigation being conducted by the Police Involved Investigation Team"
IPD says it will not provide further comments on the incident or the video until the investigation concludes.
The Kansas City Law Enforcement Accountability Project has planned a "Rally for Justice" for Sunday, Dec. 1 at 2 p.m., outside of IPD headquarters in downtown Independence.
This story may be updated with more information.
