The family of a mother and baby killed by an Independence Police officer last month are demanding more transparency from the department, four days after it released a highly edited video footage of the incident from an officers' body camera.
The family rallied outside of IPD headquarters on Sunday with police accountability advocates and about half a dozen others.
“The family deserves to see all the body cam and hear the unedited audio,” said Nina Book, twin sister of 34-year-old Maria Pike, who was killed along with her 11-week-old baby, Destinii Hope, on Nov. 7.
The two were shot to death after Talisa Coombs, the baby's grandmother, called police to Pike's apartment. Coombs said she had been assaulted when she went to check on the two before calling the police.
"I just wanted to make sure that baby Destinii was good," Coombs said. "Maria needed some help, that's all. I didn't ask them police officers to go upstairs into that apartment and shoot that baby and Maria," she said.
Members of Pike's family noted the new mother had also been diagnosed with postpartum depression.
Independence Police released on the day before Thanksgiving a highly edited version of officers' body camera footage from the incident, including about three minutes of a 20-minute incident.
It showed two officers entering the apartment, and finding Pike in a closet holding Destinii. Family members said the closet was converted into a nursery.
The video then jumps ahead and Pike is seen sitting on her bed, still holding the baby. Then, 11 minutes after officers enter the apartment, according to time stamps, Pike suddenly grabs a large kitchen knife and moves toward an officer with the knife over her head, still holding the baby.
The video then stops and what happened next is not shown.
“Somebody should have put themselves into harm's way to save baby Destinii,” said Felisha Holder, the baby's aunt. “You don’t shoot a woman with a baby in her arms.”
The rally on Sunday was organized by the Kansas City Law Enforcement Accountability Project. The group's co-founder Steve Young said police are supposed to put themselves into harm's way to protect people.
“However, on that very day, an officer could care less about putting himself in harm's way to save a 2-month-old baby's life," he said. "'Shoot to kill' was his only thought.”
Young also blasted Independence police for releasing just a fraction of the body cam video without giving the family advance warning.
“I'm not going to let myself fall captive to a heavily edited video that was only released in an attempt to exonerate IPD," he said.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday the Independence Police Department said it "has been and will continue to be as transparent as legally permitted. 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."
The department says it will not provide further comments on the incident or the video until the investigation concludes.
