SEDALIA, Mo. (AP) — A restaurant’s surveillance footage captured a Missouri sheriff's deputy fatally shoot a woman, and investigators were trying to determine whether the woman also recorded the encounter.
In search warrants, a Missouri State Highway Patrol investigator described the surveillance video as showing the Pettis County deputy make contact with 25-year-old Hannah Fizer on June 13 before drawing his gun. Fizer, who had been pulled over for speeding and careless driving, can be seen moving in her car before the deputy fired his weapon.
The public has not seen the video. Such evidence is normally closed to public view during an active investigation.
The shooting comes amid increased scrutiny of officer-involved killings since the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Floyd, a handcuffed Black man, died after a white police officer pressed a knee into Floyd’s neck for several minutes as he pleaded for air and eventually stopped moving. Fizer was white, as is the deputy who shot her.
During the traffic stop, the deputy indicated Fizer refused to identify herself. She told the deputy she was armed with a gun and was going to shoot the deputy, according to the patrol. No gun was found in her car.
The deputy also indicated Fizer said she was recording the traffic stop, the warrants revealed. Fizer’s cellphone was found on the floor of the car. In one of the warrants, an investigator wrote he believed it could contain video or photographic evidence of the shooting. It has been sent to the state’s digital forensic center in Jefferson City for analysis and data extraction.
“Anything she had said or he had said we’re looking into,” said patrol Sgt. Bill Lowe.
The issue of whether the shooting was captured on video has been a concern for community members with questions about the shooting. No body camera or dashcam video of the encounter exists.
The case has led to protests, and the sheriff last week urged the community to be calm, saying deputies’ home addresses were being circulated online and one deputy and his child had been threatened.