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.

[inline:washington-state-patrol-detective-badge_0.jpg align=right]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."