On Friday evening, a suicidal, armed pregnant woman in Auburn, Washington was shot and killed by the police in her home.
The 23-year-old mother of three, Renee Davis, was at her house on the Muckleshoot Indian Reservation when the police responded to a report that she was five months pregnant, armed with a gun, and suicidal, according to the Seattle Times.
Videos by PopCulture.com
The King’s County Sheriff’s office said that deputies arrived to simply conduct a welfare check. The deputies proceeded to knock on the door with no answer. They knocked again with the same result.
Inside the home, the police deputies could see two young children running around. Upon entering the home, the deputies saw Davis with a handgun.
The details of what happened next are unclear at the moment, but eventually the deputies opened fire on Davis. She was struck by at least one bullet and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Davis’s foster sister, Danielle Bargala, has said that she suffered from depression in the past. While Bargala was aware that Davis owned a hunting rifle, she was unaware that her sister owned a handgun.
On Friday evening, Bargala mentioned that Davis had texted someone to tell them that she was emotionally distraught. Whomever Davis texted was the person that asked the police to go check on her, according to the Washington Post.
“It’s really upsetting because it was a wellness check,” Bargala said. “Obviously, she didn’t come out of it well.”
During an interview with the KOMO News, King County Sheriff Dept. Sgt. Cindi West said, “They tried repeatedly to get somebody to come to the door, nobody did.” She continued, “But, they could see the kids running around inside the house.” The officers “found her in the house and she was armed with a gun,” West said.
Davis was five months pregnant with her fourth child. The other three were ages 2, 3, and 5.
Seattle lawyer Ryan Dreveskracht has stated that the outcome of the this particular incident has been consistent with interactions between those struggling with mental illness and law enforcement authorities.
Davis, described by one of her relatives as Native American, is one of at least 776 people shot and killed by the police so far this year, just 32 of them women, according to a Washington Post database tracking of police shootings. Of those 32, 13 of the women that were shot and killed were listed as mentally ill.
What are your thoughts on this awful incident?
[H/T TIME, WorldStar Hip-Hop, Seattle Times, Washington Post]
