11 October 2019, Kansas City, MO – A sheriff’s deputy’s account of why she shot an unarmed woman has been called into question– and it is virtually the same story she used when she fatally shot an unarmed man in 2017.
Deputy Lauren Michael was decorated for shooting an unarmed suspect, Donald Sneed, at a Walmart in 2017. She said then that despite her tasering the man she had been struggling with, he took her taser, shooting her in the face. She said that was why she shot him multiple times, killing him.
Now Michael sits on a suspension without after shooting an unarmed woman who allegedly refused an earlier stop: for a scooter offense.
In this case the shooting victim’s story has been corroborated. Deputy Michael said the woman, Ms Simek, a retired U.S. Coast Guard service member, grabbed her taser and shot her, despite the suspect being hit with a taser. The taser however shows that it was fired twice only three seconds apart: this is hardly consistent with the suspect being tasered (which should never have happened in the first place) and immediately being able to grab it and fire it.
Ms Simek said she was shot in the back while running away – the forensic and medical evidence backs this up.
Michael got out of her car with her Taser already drawn and told her to get on the ground. “For what?” Simek asked. Simek said Michael still did not tell her.
Michael’s dash-cam footage captured glimpses of events, even as Michael and Simek remained mostly off camera. Michael, at 11:15 p.m., grabbing Simek by the hair and throwing her to the ground. Simek’s legs can be seen a minute later, twitching uncontrollably, then standing upright and running.
The District Attorney’s office is going to reopen the 2017 shooting death of Sneed in light of this new shooting’s details.
According to the Washington Post, Sneed’s family, which already filed a wrongful-death suit against Michael, is calling for charges to be filed in his death and for Michael to permanently lose her badge. “Now we’ve got another lady shot, and that cop doesn’t even belong on the force,” his father, Donald Sneed Jr., told the Kansas City Star. “She’s trigger-happy and she’s gonna kill more.”
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