Cops were called to check on a pregnant woman struggling with mental illness. They shot and killed her instead

This past Friday, a Washington woman who was five months pregnant was shot and killed by King County sheriff’s deputies and her family doesn’t know why.

The shooting took place on the Muckleshoot tribal reservation after someone had alerted law enforcement that 23-year-old Renee Davis needed to be checked on. According to the Seattle Times, Davis had been struggling with depression and was in a “bad way.”

“It’s really upsetting because it was a wellness check,” Davis’s former foster sister Danielle Bargala said. “Obviously, she didn’t come out of it well.”

As the Times reports, a relative called the sheriff’s department on Friday after receiving an alarming text from Davis, who has three children.

According to police records, officers responded to a call about a possibly suicidal person and encountered Davis with a handgun and two small children in the house when they arrived at 6:30 in the evening.

davis
Renee Davis (Facebook)

From Raw Story:

What happened next, Bargala said, is still in question, but at the end, Davis — who was an avid outdoorswoman of Native American heritage — lay dead of gunshot wounds. The children, 2 and 3 years old, were unharmed. Davis’ third child, a 5-year-old boy, was at a neighbor’s house.

Bargala said that she’s never seen Davis with a handgun, but she did own a hunting rifle.

“She loved hunting,” she said.

Speaking to the Times, Seattle lawyer Ryan Dreveskracht said that scenarios like these are all too common when police are called to a scene where a person is struggling with mental illness.

While the Seattle Police Department now trains its officers in de-escalation techniques,Dreveskracht said that many other departments around the state do not.

Davis’s children are currently staying with relatives.

Watch a local news report on the story below:

 Featured image via Facebook (Renee Davis)

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *