‘Looked Like Her Head Exploded’: Missouri Cop Fatally Shot 2-Month-Old Baby and Her Mother After Relative Called Police for Help, Family Says

A Missouri family and their community are mourning the tragic deaths of a 34-year-old woman and her infant daughter, who were killed in an officer-involved shooting earlier this month. Family members say Maria Pike and her 2-month-old daughter Destinii Hope were shot to death on Nov. 7 after police were called to an apartment in Independence, Missouri, to respond to a domestic disturbance. Two-month-old Destinii Hope was killed alongside her mother in an officer-involved shooting in Independence Missouri on Nov. 7, 2024. (Photo: Facebook/Talisa Coombs) Few details have been released by local law enforcement in the weeks since the shooting, but eyewitnesses shared their accounts of what happened with local news outlets. Talisa Coombs, the infant’s grandmother, told The Kansas City Star that she was the one who called the police after getting into a physical altercation with the child’s mother. Family members say Maria Pike had mental health and anger issues and had recently been suffering from postpartum depression. Coombs said when she called police she thought authorities would arrive, take Pike into custody, and get her the help she needed. She told her son and Destinii’s father, Mitchell Holder, that she wanted to press charges against Pike for...