The family of an 11-week-old girl and her mother, who were shot to death by police in November 2024, has agreed to settle a wrongful death lawsuit with the Independence Police Department for an undisclosed amount.
Maria Pike, 34, and her daughter, Destinii Hope, were shot multiple times by an officer responding to a domestic disturbance call at an Independence apartment complex while Pike was wielding a knife.
“This unprecedented tragedy demands swift changes in every part of the police department’s mental health emergency response process, from officer training to leadership accountability,” the family's lawyer, Tom Porto, said in a statement.
Both suffered “great physical pain” before their deaths, according to the lawsuit filed last July in Jackson County Circuit Court.
Destinii was shot once in the head and “survived for several minutes, gasping and choking to breathe and letting out faint cries,” Pike’s parents and Destinii’s father charge in the lawsuit.
Pike was shot in the back, neck and wrist.
Both died at the hospital.
Independence Police officers Jordan White and Chad Cox were named defendants. A judge approved the settlement on Friday.
The day before last Thanksgiving, Independence police released a highly edited video from the officers’ body cameras. The video showed three minutes of the 20-minute encounter.
The video shows officers entering the apartment building, talking briefly with the apartment manager and then entering Pike's unit. There, they found Pike, unarmed, in a closet, holding her baby. Eleven 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. The video stops just before White shot Pike and Destinii.
Two weeks after the killings, former Independence Police Chief Adam Dustman said the officers “acted exactly as they were trained to do.”
Jackson County Prosecutor Melesa Johnson decided against charging the officers.
Independence Police did not respond to a request for comment this weekend.
