WASHINGTON: A police officer in the state of Texas shot and killed a woman in the parking lot of her apartment complex during an arrest, Anadolu Agency reported, quoting multiple reports.
Video of the fatal encounter was posted to social media and raised questions as to what caused the officer to shoot and kill the woman.
In a Snapchat recording of the shooting, the woman yelled she was pregnant before being shot, however, according to local reports, that claim was not able to be supported by the woman’s family.
The officer was on patrol in Baytown, a city east of Houston, late Monday when he came across a woman who had multiple prior warrants.
Police told NBC News that when the officer tried to arrest the woman, she resisted, to which the officer was “forced to deploy his Taser”.
“You’re actually harassing me,” the woman said in video of the incident.
The woman grabbed the Taser and tried to use it on the officer, prompting the officer to draw his weapon firing multiple rounds at the woman. She was declared dead on the scene, according to multiple reports.
Baytown police are not giving the name of the officer in question.
Fatal police shootings have been a common occurrence in the US, with every year since 2015 seeing nearly 1,000 incidents.
According to a database of fatal police shootings created by the Washington Post, at least 323 people in the US have been shot and killed by police so far in 2019.
