Family of Independence mother, baby killed during police shooting speak out

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - Family of Maria Pike, 34, and Destinii Hope, two months old, continue their search for ability nearly one month after the two were shot and killed by an Independence police officer.

Officers arrived at the Oval Spring Apartment Complex in Independence on November 7 around 1:55 p.m. for a physical domestic disturbance call.

The Independence Police Department released an edited video of the moments leading up to their death last week as IPD said it was committed to transparency in this case.

The investigation by the Eastern Jackson County Police Involved Incident Team is still underway, but family of Pike and Hope are asking for more information about how the situation escalated to Pike grabbing a knife and an officer shooting their gun at the two.

On Sunday, family gathered alongside of KC LEAP (Law Enforcement ability Project) asking for the IPD to release the full video unedited for all to see.

KCTV5 asked IPD for a response about the press conference outside the front doors but has not heard back.

“That cop needs to be fired. He would have been called a hero if he saved baby Destinii but instead, he is called a baby killer,” said Destinii’s aunt, Felisha Holder. “If I was in that room, the first person who I’m going to want to protect is baby Destinii. A knife only stabs, it doesn’t shoot.”

Destinii’s grandmother Talisa Coombs made the initial call on that day, reporting Pike was being violent but she was hoping for a different way of defusing the situation.

“I just wanted to make sure that baby Destinii was good and Maria needed some help, that’s all. I didn’t ask the police officers to go upstairs into that apartment and shoot them,” she said.

Coombs claimed Child Protective Services was in with her but could not get in with Maria or Mitchell Holder (Destinii’s father) the day before the shooting. She claimed police responded there as well but they could not access the apartment without a court order.

“If they would have done their job on November 6, Destinii and Maria would have been here still and Maria would have got the help that she needed,” said Coombs.

Maria’s twin sister Nina Book called in to share some words.

“My sister and my niece deserve an impartial, very thorough, and transparent investigation. There has to be and there needs to be ability,” she said. “What if this were your family? The community and the family of the fallen deserve to see the body camera footage and to hear the full audio.”

Co-founder of KC LEAP Steve Young said IPD released the video to exonerate themselves.

“They want to justify killing a two-month-old baby. I don’t know how you do that but that’s why they released the video,” he said. “It’s to get people to thinking, it’s to split the community because you see what happened in that video and now you think that they were justified for killing a mom and her baby.”

They claim family were not made aware the IPD would release the video to the public. They said they found out the video was circulating online after receiving interview requests about the video from of the media.

“We think what they did was pretty disgusting doing that without notifying the family. Also, before the Thanksgiving holiday. So we’re just really here to advocate for the family,” said Young.

Young will continue seeking ability as the family continues with the holiday season which would have been Destinii’s first.

“If that baby wasn’t involved, they can completely justify what they just did but because that baby was there and that momma was holding that baby, I feel like it was their duty to try to protect that baby and not shoot to kill,” said Young.

Holder said, “We were taught to call 9-1-1 when something bad happens but now we’re scared to do that because we don’t know what the outcome will be like.”

For the full video provided by IPD, click HERE.

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