Mom killed by KC-area police was shot in the back holding her baby, unedited video shows
In an emotional meeting with prosecutors, loved ones of a woman and baby shot and killed by Independence police watched officers’ unedited body camera footage for the first time as they learned the officer will not face charges in their deaths.
They learned new details about the Nov. 7 shooting and heard the four shots that were fired at Maria Pike, who was holding her 2-month-old daughter, Destinii, when she raised a concealed butcher knife and moved toward officers.
They listened to the 911 call that sent police to the Oval Spring Apartments and questioned why prosecutors declined to file charges against the officer who killed the mother and child.
The meeting Friday with the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office, which The Star received a recording of, included 23 minutes of bodycam footage that showed how the shooting unfolded from the moment officers arrived at the apartments at 16801 Larkspur Lane to the fatal shots that killed Pike, 34, and her daughter.
Prosecutors met with the family members less than three hours before the public was informed that the officer who shot their loved ones would not face criminal charges from the prosecutor’s office. Dion Sankar, Jackson County’s chief deputy prosecutor, carefully walked through the case during the emotional virtual meeting with the family and answered numerous questions.
“We do not believe that there is a path to charging this specific case under the law,” he said, “and under the facts that we have in front of us.”
Jazzlyn Johnson, director of communications for the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office, said “we were surprised to learn” the meeting was recorded.
“… We approached the meeting as an opportunity for a private and compassionate discussion to explain our legal analysis and allow any questions,” she said. “Our office reaffirms all information we shared during the meeting.
“After carefully reviewing all evidence and applying the law, the office determined criminal charges could not be filed against the officer involved for either death.”
The unedited bodycam footage, recorded from the perspective of the officer who fired his service weapon and the bodycam of his partner, also shows Pike concealed the butcher knife with what appears to be paper or cloth on a bedside table. Pike removed the cloth and stepped toward the second officer on the scene before moving toward the officer who shot her.
As the officer who shot unholstered and pointed his weapon, Pike can be seen turning sideways and turning her back to the officer as he fired.
“I can tell you that the shots appear to be fired within a 1-to-2-second time frame,” Sankar said, “and they are very quick succession.”
In the meeting, loved ones contended that Pike dropped the knife after the first shot, and deemed the rest of the shots excessive.
Jackson County Prosecutor Melesa Johnson said prosecutors could not “prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the shooting officer used excessive force” in the office’s 15-page letter that was sent to attorneys representing Mitchell Holder, Destinii’s father, Pike’s family and media members on Friday.
In that letter, and in the meeting with family, prosecutors described where the bullets hit Pike’s body. One bullet hit her in the wrist, one entered her neck, one struck her torso, and one her back, prosecutors said. And a bullet hit Destinii in the head.
Family members still question why police didn’t wait for a mental health worker to talk with Pike, the order of the bullets and why, in their minds, the officer continued to shoot after the knife fell from her hand.
“She had the time to turn her back to him and drop the knife,” said Nina Book, Pike’s twin sister, during the meeting. “He should have had time to take his finger off the trigger.”
Police were dispatched to Oval Spring Apartments on a domestic dispute call just before 2 p.m. on Nov. 7. Talisa Coombs, Destinii’s paternal grandmother, called 911 after she said Pike hit her when she went to her son’s apartment — where Pike and the baby also lived.
Coombs told dispatchers that Pike “whooped my ass and threw me out and tried to take my phone.” Coombs was not in the meeting.
Previously, in a surprise video “news briefing” the day before Thanksgiving, Independence police released heavily-edited footage, which shows just four minutes of what transpired that afternoon from the camera of the officer who fired in the moments 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.
Releasing only a portion of the bodycam footage months ago allowed police “to control the narrative,” said Steve Young, co-founder of KC LEAP (Law Enforcement Accountability Project). “They were calculated when they released that video. They wanted folks to be confused and to doubt what they were seeing.”
“If they were really serious about being transparent, they wouldn’t have released that edited version of the video,” Young said. “That edited version of the video is what’s in people’s minds.”
Young was in last week’s meeting and was able to see, through unedited bodycam footage, what happened. He said he doesn’t think police were justified in what they did that day.
“You actually get to see the full picture,” he said. “You get to see everything in full context. You don’t have this narration, them telling you what you’re supposed to think.
“You’re seeing it.”
‘Why are you being like this?’
When officers first saw Pike, she was in a large closet area off the bedroom that was used as a makeshift nursery with a picture of a rainbow on the wall. She was holding her daughter and swaying back and forth.
For several minutes she stayed silent — not responding to an officer’s questions — as she rocked Destinii back and forth and then later fed her a bottle.
After several minutes the second officer came and, again, Pike kept silent.
“What’s the problem, why are you being like this?” the second officer asked her. He then told the other officer: “I’m going to tell (Holder) that he probably needs to come in and take the baby.”
After the first officer was in the bedroom for about four minutes, trying to communicate with Pike, he radioed in: “ … She’s kind of using the baby as a shield, so we’re gonna wait.”
At one point, the other officer brought Holder into the bedroom.
“Can you put the baby in the baby carrier there?” that officer said to Pike.
When she didn’t answer, the officer turned to Holder: “I need you to take your baby from her, OK? I do not want that baby to get hurt.”
Holder said: “Me neither.”
“So take that baby from her, OK? … He’s going to take the baby from you.”
Holder said he couldn’t do it and sat on the edge of the bed.
After the first officer was in the bedroom with Pike for about 10 minutes, she left the closet and made her way to the bed with Destinii.
“We just want to help out,” the second officer said to Pike once she moved to the bed. “And we don’t want that baby to get hurt, that’s all we care about, OK? We don’t want that baby to get hurt.
“Do you want the baby to get hurt?”
At one point, the first officer who was in the room with Pike in the beginning, put on a pair of blue gloves.
Family members had a difficult time with that.
“When he started pulling up his gloves, that’s fight gestures,” said Tom Pike, Maria’s father. “I’m not an FBI profiler or something, but they were getting ready to rumble.”
Less than a minute after the gloves went on, Pike reached with her right hand toward the nightstand for a butcher knife that was concealed. She raised the knife over her head and moved toward officers.
The first officer, who had been in the room with Pike for about 12 minutes, fired the four shots.
Soon after the meeting, KC LEAP released a statement.
“After viewing the full bodycam with the family, we are dissatisfied with the decision not to file charges against the officer responsible for the tragic murder of two-month-old baby Destinii and her mother, Maria,” the statement said.
“This outcome is not only a profound failure of our justice system — it is a failure of our collective responsibility to protect and honor every member of our community, including those with mental health issues and disabilities.”
The statement went on to say that after viewing the footage, “it is unclear whether Maria still had the knife in her hand when she was shot.” The organization also pointed to the entrance wound in the mother’s back, according to the Jackson County medical examiner’s report.
“Those facts, in concert with the behavior of the officer who chose not to wait for the Crisis Intervention Team warrant the decision of a court and our outrage.”
‘Always see her smile’
Family members still have questions. Prosecutors told them Friday that there would be another meeting to discuss everything.
“I think that we’re 100% going to need to do that,” Sankar told them. “We’re always going to do that with families that are suffering underneath these particular circumstances.”
On multiple occasions, prosecutors told loved ones how sorry they were for their loss. And Sankar did so one final time before the meeting concluded.
“I want you all to know and hear this, when I say this,” Sankar said. “We take no joy in ever declining a case when we have a family that’s losing a loved one. The best thing that we can do in this circumstance is lay out what we think our best judgment is.”
Prosecutor Melesa Johnson also empathized with family members before the end of the meeting.
“Since the moment that I took this office on January 3, this case has been at the forefront of all of our minds within this office,” the prosecutor said. “Unfortunately, the law does not change depending on who the victim is, and this is beyond a profound loss of life. We can see that, we are sensitive to that, and I can’t imagine how difficult this conversation is for you and your family.”
Talisa Coombs, Destinii’s paternal grandmother, said she thinks about her granddaughter all of the time.
“I’ve been with that baby since it came home,” she said. “It is hard for me, definitely hard.
“In my mind, I always see her smile.”
She and her husband, Brian, say the officer who killed Pike and their granddaughter should not be allowed back on the street.
“I don’t care if he was charged or not, he should not be a police officer,” Brian Coombs said. “He still has a job? Even if it was an accident, he shouldn’t have a gun.”
Added Talisa: “He should have gotten some kind of punishment out of this. He don’t need to be a police officer.”
After the shooting, three officers — including the one who shot Pike and Destinii — were put on administrative leave. It isn’t known when the officers could be cleared to get back on the job.
“When any officer is involved in a critical incident, there is a process that occurs before an officer can return to full duty,” said Officer Bryan Conley, a spokesman for the Independence Police Department, in an email. “That process is a personnel matter, and I cannot comment further on it.”
Conley did not answer a question about the officer who shot Pike and Destinii and when or if he would be back on duty.
This story was originally published March 19, 2025 at 5:57 PM.
