Still photos taken from bodycam footage from last Friday’s officer-involved shooting in Kansas City, Missouri, show Leonna Hale was allegedly holding a gun prior to being shot.
The Kansas City Star reports that 26-year-old Hale was shot “by two officers in the parking lot of a Family Dollar store near Sixth Street and Prospect Ave.”
In the aftermath of the shooting a witness claimed Hale was unarmed and pregnant.
The Star quotes Rev. Timothy Hayes countering the pregnancy claim, saying, “She is not, in fact, pregnant.”
The Daily Mail published still photos from bodycam footage which show Hale purportedly holding a gun during her interaction with police.
The bodycam footage has yet to be released to the public, but Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker viewed it and said, “Hale was continually displaying a weapon during her encounter with police and also appeared to be attempting to flee.”
Baker added, “Our job, as prosecutors, is to remain neutral and review all evidence. Our review of body cam videos provided the actual accounting of events that night. … The two officers stated that she was armed with what they believed to be a handgun. Body camera footage confirms the officers’ statements that Hale was holding a handgun.”
The Jackson County prosecutor’s office has charged Hale with “unlawful firearm possession, exhibiting a firearm and resisting arrest.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. Reach him at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.