On November 7, 2024, in Independence, Missouri, two lives ended after police responded to a domestic disturbance at the Oval Spring Apartments. The caller was Talisa Coombs, the infant’s grandmother, who reported being assaulted by 34-year-old Maria Pike. Officers located Pike in a closet with her two-month-old daughter, Destinii Hope.

Body camera video released by police shows Pike emerge from the closet cradling Destinii, move to a bed and grab a knife from a nightstand. An officer fired at Pike as she advanced, and both mother and child were struck; Destinii Hope was shot in the head. Both died from their injuries.

Jackson County Prosecutor Melesa Johnson reviewed the evidence, including body camera footage, and decided not to file criminal charges, concluding the officer reasonably believed he faced imminent danger. The family has since filed a wrongful death lawsuit alleging negligence and that the encounter was a mental health crisis that should have been de-escalated rather than met with lethal force.

Did anyone in Independence have direct knowledge of what happened at the Oval Spring Apartments that night or information useful to the civil case?