'I am traumatized': Father recounts police shooting inside Independence apartment that killed baby, mother
INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — Mitchell Holder still lives in his Independence apartment, but he can no longer sleep in his bedroom.
"It’s very difficult for me to be in here," Holder told KSHB 41 Tuesday. "In this room, it feels like the presences of both of them — of souls."
Holder said the Nov. 7 police shooting happened in the bedroom he shared with his girlfriend, Maria Pike, and his infant daughter, Destinii.
Holder said his mother, Talisa Coombs, and Pike got into an argument over who was best suited to take care of baby Destinii.
Independence police and investigators have not said how Pike or Destinii died, but that the mother had a knife and an officer fired their weapon.
Holder said Tuesday that he did not see Pike with a knife.
Mitchell Holder still lives in his Independence apartment, but he can no longer sleep in his bedroom.
www.kshb.com
The police shot and killed a mother and her 2 year old child. The child was shot in the head. The police who did this need to be put in prison for life with no parole. This kind of thing must stop.
Police officers of all colors, from the palest of Swedish Americans to the darkest black cop in Mississippi, will regard black suspects as guilty unless proven innocent, dangerous unless rendered safe, disrespectful until they demonstrate respect.
They feel the same about white suspects, but whites get a little more benefit of the doubt before the officers (of all colors, remember) mentally categorize them as suspects.
This is not based on hatred and evil, but on stastics. The percent of criminals who are black and the prrcent of blacks who are criminal are both shockingly high.
Cops want to go home safely at the end of their shift, just like everyone else with the job. When my son was a deputy constable, I assume that he took those kinds of statistics into account when he when he with a diversity of people during his day. I assume that because he made it through seven or eight years alive, though having sustained a few injuries.
Guess who from?
The other factor is very much cultural. The media is constantly telling blacks that they were downtrodden by police and the police owe them a version of “respect” that is sometimes difficult for police to understand. They will often give offense without meaning to, or realizing it.
You have to put yourself in the police officers place. A police officer goes through his day, dealing with a limited set of types of people. Nearly all of the white people that they meet are very respectful to the point of being differential then when they meet a young black male who is surly, entitled, and ready to make the worst assumptions about the police officer, the officers Spidey sense tells him to be careful in approaching, this person.
As a white person, when I speak to a black person, I am well aware of the hundreds of years of history of black oppression by whites. Without being condescending, I’ll make a point to be as respectful and friendly as possible. Like many white people in positions of authority, I look for opportunities to help black person up the ladder, knowing that there is this history.
For their own safety, young black men need to realize that there is a history of black on white violence, and black on police violence. It’s not hundreds of years, but it has been going on since the 60s. They should be ready to show respect and understand that the police officers version of returning respect may look quite different from other whites they are used to.
