After police published footage from a bodycam showing her to be armed, a Kansas woman who was shot and wounded by Kansas City, Missouri, police has been charged with many charges.
Leonna Hale, 26, of Kansas City, Kansas, was charged with unlawful firearm possession, displaying a handgun, and resisting arrest by the Jackson County prosecutor’s office.
According to the prosecutor’s office, police body camera footage from the incident showed Hall clutching a revolver in her right hand as officers attempted to arrest her in connection with an alleged carjacking in Kansas City, Kansas, on Friday.
‘During her encounter with police, Hale was constantly displaying a weapon and also appeared to be attempting to flee,’ according to Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker, who reviewed the video.
‘Some false narratives about what happened last Friday night at 6th and Prospect Avenue, unfortunately, were relied upon by some media and other sources,’ Baker said. ‘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,’ Baker explained.
‘Still photos, taken from body cam footage, of this encounter also demonstrate a weapon was present and in the hands of the defendant.’
Despite the fact that the full footage from the cop body cameras has yet to be disclosed, Baker has released a still image from one of the officers’ body cameras to back up his assertions.
It appears to show a black woman with a gun in her right hand, though it’s unclear if she’s pointing it at officers.
Police have stated cops were following a car in a store parking lot that matched the description of the one carjacked.
Police reported a male and a woman, subsequently identified as Hale, ran from the vehicle. Both policemen fired at Hale in the parking lot as she ran clutching the pistol, authorities said.
Some media sources at the time of the killing referenced an eyewitness who characterized Hale as being unarmed and pregnant.
They further allege the woman had been trying to comply before she was gunned down and shackled on the ground as blood flowed through her white t-shirt.
Hale was brought to the hospital with significant injuries, but police said he was in stable condition.
Medics also took the male, who was reported to be her boyfriend, in for an unrelated medical condition.
At a Family Dollar shop in Kansas City, Hale is shown being cuffed on the ground as she begins to bleed from bullet wounds.
Hale denied ever owning a gun when she was examined by Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers, according to court filings.
When approached a second time after detectives watched the body camera tape, she declined to engage in a follow-up interview, according to court filings.
Police shot Hale after trying to question her and another person she was with about the vehicle they were traveling in and its possible use in a robbery, according to the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office.