Missouri – 34-year-old Missouri woman, Marya, and her baby, Destiny, were shot to death by the responding authorities after the child’s grandparent called 911 following domestic assault. The fatal shooting occurred earlier this month, while the officer’s body-cam footage was released last week. Authorities are currently investigating the oficer-nvolved shooting at the family’s apartment which left the mother and her baby dead, Kansas City reported.
During the investigation process, authorities discovered that both the mother and her husband suffered from mental health problems, but reportedly refused to get treatment and continued to have custody of the 2-month-old child. In the video, released by the police department, the mother can be seeing lunging at the responding officer with a knife, prompting one of the officers to pull out his weapon and shoot, resulting in the woman’s and her baby’s death.
The fatal incident, which occurred on November 7, reportedly began after the victim got into an argument with the baby’s grandparent, TaIisa, who is also her husband’s mother. According to the elderly woman, the victim pulled her hair and reportedly tried to push the older woman down the stairs after she went to see her granddaughter. The woman called 911 and the Children’s Division of the Missouri Department for Social Services, because she thought they would provide help for the victim, because she reportedly suffered from postpartum depression.
In the video, the responding officers made contact with the victim and her husband and reportedly talked for several minutes before the woman grabbed a knife, while still holding her baby, raised it over her head and then charged at one of the responding officers. It remains unclear how many shots were fired at the charging woman and her child, but both victims were pronounced dead at the scene.
According to the victim’s family members, the woman suffered from severe postpartum depression after giving birth earlier this year. The woman reportedly told doctors at the hospital that she ‘wanted to hurt herself’ and that she was homeless. The victim’s husband reportedly suffered from dissociative identity disorder and was receiving therapy and counseling.
The grandparent also told local news outlets that the woman called CPS on her son and his wife one month ago after the 34-year-old woman reportedly tried to kill her baby by smothering the then-1-month-old child. The woman was admitted to mental hospital and staff determined that she could no longer be left alone with her baby. When the baby was later released from the hospital, Children’s Division employee brought her back to the mother’s apartment and told the grandmother and her son, Mitchell, that the baby’s mom could no longer be left alone with the baby.
‘They should have done that themselves. If they thought that baby was in danger, that’s their job. They should have went up there. If they would have went over there, done their job, the outcome would have been different, I know it would have. It wouldn’t have escalated to this,’ the baby’s grandfather, Brian, reportedly said.