The woman, Talisa Coombs, told Delaney she’d just gotten into what she alleged was a physical altercation with her granddaughter’s mother, Maria Pike, and called 911. Independence police’s response to that 911 call ended with the shooting death of Pike, 34, and her two month old daughter, Destinii Hope — who were identified Tuesday by authorities from the Police Involved Investigative Team, or PIIT, a team of eastern Jackson County detectives called in to investigate police shootings and use-of-force incidents.
The officer who fired his weapon was “a long-tenured veteran of law enforcement,” Dustman said. That officer and another two who were at the scene are on administrative leave.
This city sounds like a shitshow, Social Services came the day before to take the baby but no one answered the door so they just left? They didn’t even check with the apartment management office? My mom used to do that for a living and would always have the police come with her for any situation like that.
It obviously was a bad situation before the cops showed up, but the father was right to not let them in at first. This situation is exactly what the ‘defund the police’ slogan was aiming at, Social Services should have definitely responded with the police, really any time the police believe a child is involved.
Idk about social services in other places, but I had a buddy that was a social worker. His caseload was something like eight times higher than it should have been. Trying to get in touch weekly with people who don’t want to see you. You can try to prioritize to the best of your knowledge, but there’s only so much you can do.
I get that but the article says they were there to take the child away, that seems serious enough that they wouldn’t have just knocked on the door and then just left.