Independence police officer who shot, killed mother and baby will not be charged

An Independence police officer who shot and killed a mother and her baby during a domestic disturbance call in November will not face criminal charges, the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office announced Friday.

In a news release, Prosecutor Melesa Johnson said her office could not “prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the shooting officer used excessive force” in the case where Maria Pike, 34, and her 2-month-old daughter Destinii were killed inside the apartment where they lived with the baby’s father.

“Because of this, we are compelled to decline filing charges against the shooting officer in this case,” Johnson said. “...we did not arrive at this decision lightly. The loss of a young mother and her infant are devastating and tragic.

“However, as prosecutors, we are bound by an oath to apply the law and analyze facts without being guided by the sympathy we feel for all those impacted. Our purpose is to determine if what was done was reasonable, defined by Missouri law, and not whether it was the best course of action.”

When Talisa Coombs, Destinii’s paternal grandmother, was first told early Friday evening that the officer involved wouldn’t be charged, she let out a small gasp and said, “Oh my God.”

“He should have got some kind of punishment out of this,” Coombs said. “They got badges so they can get away with killing my granddaughter? .... She would have been 7 months old on the 22nd of this month, if she was alive.”

Coombs’ husband, Brian, was on the call with her and said Destinii should not have died that day.

“That baby got shot first,” Brian Coombs said. “She didn’t have a weapon…..That baby was innocent.”

“I seen that officer carrying our granddaughter’s lifeless body from that apartment building with a hole in her head. I will never forget that,” he said.

In an accompanying 15-page letter to “all interested parties,” including lawyers of family members and police officials, Johnson further explained her decision. The letter provided details from the day of the shooting, shared information the officer gave to investigators and explained how the prosecutor’s office came to its decision.

“The facts support that (the officer’s) actions were responsive and defensive in nature,” Johnson said, “and, therefore, under these circumstances, the State cannot disprove the shooting officer’s anticipated claims of self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt.”

On Nov. 7 at 1:56 p.m., police were dispatched to Oval Spring Apartments, 16801 E. Larkspur Lane, on a domestic dispute call. Talisa Coombs called 911 after she said Pike hit her when she went to her son’s apartment — where Pike and the baby also lived.

When police entered the third-floor apartment, relatives said Pike had sequestered herself in a closet, which was also Destinii’s nursery, holding the infant. Body camera video released by police does show mother and baby in the closet. However, it’s unclear how long they were there, and there is no clear indication that Pike was uncooperative.

At one point, Pike made her way to a bed while still holding her daughter. While sitting on the bed, Pike was able to grab a previously concealed large knife from a small bedside table and move toward the officers, prosecutors said. Body camera footage, which was edited, did not show the shooting.

Destinii was still under her mother’s left arm when Pike picked up the knife.

In a surprise video “news briefing” the day before Thanksgiving, Independence police released the footage, which shows only four minutes of what transpired that afternoon before Pike and Destinii were fatally shot. The footage did not include the full exchange between Pike and the officers or the interaction immediately leading up to Pike raising the knife.

Initially, after the shooting, three officers were placed on administrative leave. Police have not released the name of the officer who fired the shots that killed the mother and her daughter.

Relatives of the two have said that police went too far in using deadly force during the situation. And they’ve said that Missouri’s child welfare agency didn’t do enough to protect Destinii, who had been on the radar of the Children’s Division since she was hours old.

In a news conference the day after the shooting, Independence Police Chief Adam Dustman said the officer who fired the shots was a “long tenured veteran of law enforcement.” Dustman also said the responding officers carried out proper training techniques during the incident.

“Their response was exactly as they were trained to perform,” Dustman said, “and they did so according to that training and expertise.”

The Police Involved Investigative Team, a team of eastern Jackson County detectives who investigate police shootings and use-of-force incidents, reviewed the case and sent their findings to the prosecutor’s office.

Nina Book, Pike’s twin sister, was one of several family members who met with prosecutors Friday afternoon before the public learned of the decision not to file charges.

Book, who was Pike’s only sibling, said she was angered by the decision. She believes the officer who fired the shots should no longer have a badge.

“We need to come together, make sure he doesn’t hold a gun ever again and doesn’t work as a police officer,” Book said.

What the shooting officer told investigators

After police arrived at the apartment, the Independence officer involved in the shooting entered the bedroom of the apartment at about 2:05 p.m., the prosecutor’s letter said. The officer located Pike — who was wearing a “loose-fitting garment that resembles a night gown” — holding her daughter in the “nursery-like area located inside of that bedroom’s closet,” the letter said.

Police on the scene had contacted dispatch. An off-duty officer who was working in the dispatch center advised officers that Pike was armed with a knife in previous calls to police.

“The shooting officer recalls examining the clothing of the civilian and believing that she could not be concealing a knife,” Johnson’s letter said.

In a statement after the shooting, the involved officer said he was immediately concerned about Pike using Destinii as a shield or a way to prevent officers from arresting her. Body camera footage showed the officers talking and gesturing as they planned how to arrest Pike without harming Destinii, the letter said.

“His contemporaneous actions show that this concern was present at the time leading up to the shooting,” according to the letter.

The shooting officer also requested assistance from a crisis intervention team officer and a mental health worker after Pike showed signs “consistent with being an emotionally disturbed person.” Dustman said a mental health worker was at the scene but was unable to get to the apartment.

Witnesses at the scene said the mental health worker was preparing to visit the apartment before an officer ran out of the building with Destinii’s body.

The shooting officer planned to have the mental health worker talk Pike into relinquishing her child, the letter said. If that did not work, the next plan was to have more officers come to the scene and have someone take the child while the others arrested Pike.

Just before 2:17 p.m., Pike, while still cradling Destinii and sitting on the bed, suddenly reached toward the small bedside table, pulled out the butcher knife and stood up. The body camera footage shows that as she rises to her feet, the shooting officer moves back toward the closet as the knife blade is pointed at him.

“The civilian quickly stepped toward the witness officer with the knife blade pointed in his direction….. before moving toward the shooting officer,” Johnson’s letter said.

“In response, the witness officer quickly backs toward the hallway behind him as he yells, ‘No.’ The civilian then turned and advanced toward the shooting officer. “

The witnessing officer moved to an open space while the shooting officer’s back was to the nursery, the letter said. In his statement, the shooting officer said he drew his weapon almost immediately when Pike pulled the knife. The shooting officer said he did not fire at this point, though.

The shooting officer fired his weapon when Pike stopped moving toward the witnessing officer and closed in on the shooting officer. He then fired four times at Pike, the letter said.

How prosecutors came to this decision

The Jackson County prosecutor’s office has a use-of-force committee that reviews each police shooting. The number of officials in the group varies, and outside experts are occasionally brought in to consult.

In a meeting with reporters on Thursday, officials with the prosecutor’s office discussed general facts of Missouri’s self-defense and use-of-force law. They refused to discuss the specifics of a particular case.

The goal of these investigations is to determine if they can disprove a law enforcement officer’s use of deadly force beyond a reasonable doubt, officials said. Prosecutors said they only use the state of Missouri’s use-of-force statutes when investigating these cases.

They ultimately must determine if the use of deadly force by a police officer is immediate and necessary. Prosecutors emphasized that their process weighs heavily on what officers know going into a situation, not what facts are learned after a situation.

Missouri law defines deadly force as “physical force which the actor uses with the purpose of causing or which he or she knows to create a substantial risk of causing death or serious physical injury.”

The background of the people involved, including officers, has no bearing on prosecutors’ decisions either. An officer’s background matters most at the time of sentencing, but not when determining if an officer will be charged, officials said.

The prosecutor’s office conducted its own independent investigation into the shooting officer’s law enforcement history but they deemed “not relevant” in the analysis of the shooting, Johnson’s letter said.

Law enforcement can use the level of force that is appropriate at the time of arrest, prosecutors said. Deadly use of force is only allowed when officers respond to a threat or act of deadly force, when a person is escaping with a deadly weapon, or when a person endangers the life of an officer or other people, according to Missouri law.

This story was originally published March 14, 2025 at 5:05 PM.