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Police Shoot Unarmed Pregnant Woman in Drug Raid

Submitted by Phillip Smith on (Issue #651)
Consequences of Prohibition
Drug War Issues

An unarmed pregnant woman was shot and wounded by a Washington State Police detective during a drug raid in Spokane last Friday. On Monday, anonymous law enforcement sources were telling local media the shooting was an accident.

The woman has yet to be named. She was hospitalized with what were reported to be non-threatening injuries. She is variously described as being "39 weeks" or "more than 30 weeks" pregnant.

According to a Friday evening statement from the Spokane County Sheriff's Office, the woman resided in an apartment where the Quad Cities Drug Task Force and the Spokane Violent Crimes Enforcement Team were serving a search warrant. She "became non-complaint" and tried to flee out a bedroom window. "During efforts to prevent her escape, a shot was fired, and the woman received a minor wound to her torso. She fell out the window," and was treated at the scene and then hospitalized, but is expected to be released soon, the report said.

The statement said that no weapons were found at the scene, but that police had seized "quantities" of crack cocaine, marijuana, and prescription pills. The statement did not address what had led police to use deadly force on an unarmed pregnant woman.

Although the Washington State Patrol detective who did the shooting has yet to talk to investigators, unnamed law enforcement sources Monday were floating the narrative that the shooting was accidental. The detective "didn't want the woman to hurt herself" jumping out the window, so he grabbed her, and during that attempted restraint, "the sergeant's gun fired and the woman was hit in the torso. She then fell out of the window and was attended to by officers waiting outside."

Carmen Boots lives in the same apartment building as the victim. She told the Spokane News Tribune she and her stepson were inside when they heard a gunshot. They had not heard any yelled commands before the shooting, she said. "I heard one gunshot, a woman screamed and a man hollered out afterward," Nelson said. "I'm upset a pregnant woman was shot. I believe she didn't deserve it."

The sheriff's department said the incident is being handled under its "critical incident protocol," which means the investigation will be led by the department, but will include the Washington State Police and the Spokane Police Department.

The shooting is the third by Spokane area law enforcement personnel in the past month. On August 25, a sheriff's deputy shot and killed 74-year-old pastor Wayne Creach after mistaking him for an intruder at his own business. On September 16, sheriff's deputies shot and wounded armed assault suspect Sean Houlihan, saying he had fired at them. But on September 21, deputies interviewed by the Washington State Police "indicated the possibility that Houlihan had not fired his weapon at officers."

Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.

Comments

notSpicoli (not verified)

"Oops!"

KLXY4 reports that this was an "accidental" shooting. While trying to "restrain" the woman from jumping out of the window, "the sergeant's gun fired." (How's that for "spin?" As if the gun fired itself!)

According to KLXY4, "The release also said no weapons were found, confirming family reports that the woman was not threatening the officer when she was shot."

Interesting that the narco warriors are not crowing, as is usually done, about the amount of crack, marijuana, and pills confiscated in this near tragedy. Labor was induced at the hospital.

Also, this woman has not been arrested but remains a "suspect in the case."

Wed, 09/29/2010 - 2:21pm Permalink
Anonymous17 (not verified)

How fast and how far is an unarmed pregnant woman going to run??? How much of a fight can a pregnant woman put up?? THIS COP NEEDS TO BE FIRED, and the dept needs to be under investigation by either federal authorities or Internal Investigation Division. This is inexcusable. Have we not heard enough BS YET???

This breaks my heart.

Thu, 09/30/2010 - 11:16am Permalink
jAnonymous (not verified)

pretty soon these dumb ass cops are not going to be able to carry guns. They can't just be shooting people. I think there only qualified for a tazer or pepper spray!
Thu, 09/30/2010 - 2:21pm Permalink
Dan Simonds (not verified)

   And the cops wonder why people are afraid and hate the police. It seems that the gangs AND police are out of control. Soon,good people will have to arm and defend themselves against the police too. If law enforcement doesn`t change the way the respond to issues,they will be alone in the fight against crime.

Thu, 09/30/2010 - 7:49pm Permalink
Anonymous12 (not verified)

F**KING COPS

They think they have the high moral ground and can bully all of us second class citizens around and shoot us when we don't comply

the police are out of control like rabid dogs, they think they are an elite class that can do whatever they want

 

Even when they use tazers they torture people with them, the number of tazer related deaths a year is astounding

 

the WSP has allot to answer for lately they for sure are never getting another cent donation from this family NEVER.

I am voting no on every thing related to increasing police budgets and so on

 

I am sick of reading about police and these "drug warriors" parading their war against people, way past time for it to end

 

I am sick of reading about mayors and police chiefs caught for DUI's

 

SHAME ON YOU WSP ! SHAME ON YOU!

Thu, 09/30/2010 - 8:32pm Permalink
Edward Phillips (not verified)

Another lie in Sunrise Florida not but a few years ago.  They shot and whacked a guy unarmed in the back while he was in the closet.  Of course the IA which is nothing but a white-wash job, cleared the shooters.

Later they the taxpayer had to pay to the family $5,000,000.00 dollars.  They should have arrested the cops and locked them in the pokey were they belong.

Peace

Thu, 09/30/2010 - 11:20pm Permalink

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