Independence police killed Maria Pike and shot her 2-month-old daughter Destiny Hope in the head. Community members have accused the department of a blatant cover-up, demanding the release of body camera footage and accountability for all officers involved.
Destiny Hope, two months old, and her mother, Maria Pike, were gunned down by Independence police in what community members call a state-sanctioned execution. The killings have sparked outrage and calls for justice, with critics citing this as yet another example of escalating violence in American policing.
“Shots Fired, Shots Fired”
The tragic chain of events began on November 7th, when Talisa Coombs, baby Destiny’s grandmother, called police to report a domestic dispute at the Oval Spring Apartments in Independence. According to Talisa, Maria assaulted her during a heated argument. She wanted Maria arrested for assault, but what happened far exceeded her expectations.
“I wanted her arrested for assault, not executed,” she told the Defender.
Talisa told The Defender about the events leading up to the officer’s raid: “They asked me what happened? I claimed I was assaulted by my son’s girlfriend. And they inquired whether there were any weapons upstairs in the apartment. I said no, but there is a baby up there, my granddaughter.
Moments later, officers darted upstairs, escalating the situation in unfathomable ways, and Talisa would soon discover that her warnings had been completely ignored by the police.
A Militarized Response to a Domestic Dispute
Exclusive footage obtained by The Kansas City Defender shows officers storming the building with pistols drawn, with at least one cop sprinting up the stairs wielding a military-grade assault weapon.
Their target? A 100-pound petite woman (Maria Pike) holds her infant daughter during a domestic altercation.
Witnesses describe a chaotic scene with no obvious attempts to de-escalate. Instead of waiting for the mental health co-responder who had been dispatched to the scene, officers charged into the apartment as if they were raiding a combat zone.
Mitchell Holder, Maria’s boyfriend and Destiny’s father, spoke with The Kansas City Defender in his first interview since the horrific killings. His voice trembled as he recounted the events of that day.
“Yes, I was in the room when it all happened,” he told me. “From what I could see, I never saw Maria armed with anything. I really don’t know where that came from. I’ve heard rumors that she was holding the baby hostage in a closet and carrying a knife, all of which are false.
I mean, all I can say is that it’s possible she had a knife and I didn’t notice it, but I never saw her holding anything—and I was right there in the room.”
Holder described how he attempted to reason with officers through the door before the violence broke out. “Before they entered, I asked if we could talk through the door. “I didn’t want my baby Destiny to be around cops with their weapons out,” he said, his voice breaking. “But ultimately, they came in.”
What followed was a nightmare.
“You Killed Her!”
“They shot my baby,” Holder said, his voice shaking with grief and fury. “It looked like her head exploded. Her blood splattered across my glasses and all over me. All I could do was scream. I just kept saying three words—the same three words—‘YOU KILLED HER!’ I was screaming it. Over and over.”
He paused to collect himself before continuing. “I know she died immediately. There was a large hole in her head.”
The horror did not stop there. Holder described Destiny’s mother, Maria,’s reaction in the moments following her baby’s shooting.
“Immediately Maria jumped up. And as soon as she did, I don’t know if the cop got scared or something, but then he fired another shot that hit Maria. I think it hit her in the hip. And the cop didn’t stop her bleeding the right way, he didn’t know what he was doing. I believe she choked on her blood and bled out. That’s my understanding of how she died.”
The brutality of the police’s actions has left the apartment complex—and an entire community—in shock and outrage.
Eyewitnesses Completely Dispute Police Claims
The Independence Police Department’s narrative is based on one dubious claim: that they shot Maria Pike because she was allegedly holding a knife at the time of her murder. However, the alleged weapon has yet to appear, and so far, every piece of eyewitness testimony contradicts the police account.
Mitchell Holder insisted that he never saw Maria with a weapon. Talisa, who called 911 first, told The Defender, “I was in the apartment when I got assaulted, and there were no weapons at all, none whatsoever.”
Whether or not Maria had a knife will be revealed once body camera footage is released, but even if she did, grandfather Brian says, “I don’t get it.” Even if she did have a knife, how come two big burly guys, police officers wearing bulletproof vests, can’t take a knife away from a little bitty woman?
That makes no damn sense. Why did you feel compelled to draw your deadly weapon and shoot this woman while she was holding a baby?
Grandmother Talisa lamented the horrible fact that she would never be able to hold her granddaughter again. “She was an infant. She led a life. She didn’t know how to walk or talk, and she won’t be able to now that she’s gone.
She was a happy baby. I’ve been around baby Destiny since she was born, and I can’t hold my granddaughter in my arms and see her smile when I say, “Grandma,” anymore. Nothing can replace it.”
“Screaming For My Life”: Neighbor Describes Terror of Police Breaking Into Wrong Apartment & Holding at Gunpoint
The Independence police’s actions were not limited to the brutal murder of Maria Pike and her baby. Bug Arnold, who lives in the same building, witnessed and endured their own horrifying encounter with officers on the same day, when police stormed into Bug’s apartment in a reckless and militarized frenzy.
Bug told The Kansas City Defender that they watched from their bedroom window as police stormed the scene, rifles drawn and ready to shoot before even entering the building.
“They led with their guns the entire time,” Bug told me. “From the moment they jumped out of their cars, it was as if they were ready to kill.” Bug described how officers violently broke open their front door, knocking the wreath into the living room and breaking it.
I don’t know exactly what they had, but it was just like the real big guns they were holding, like this. And the first cop was like holding his gun to the side, which I, I don’t think that’s necessary. But they the entire time, led with the gun, from the time they got out of the car to the time that they came in.
Here, they opened my door so aggressively that my like, wreath from the front door came into the living room, and it was like a big piece of it was broken off. And I don’t know how that happened, but it took about, like three, three times for me, of me, explaining the situation for them to, like, actually leave, and just the entire time they had their guns on me, I, I wasn’t sure what to do. I was just frantically, like, waving my arms, like, Oh my God! No! No! You have the wrong house! You have the wrong house! And then they accused me of, like, doing something to their officer, like, “where’s my officer!” What’d you do with my officer!” I said “I don’t know where your officer is, sir. I assume he’s in the other apartment, because you have the wrong apartment.”
And after that, he seemed to, like, finally kind of get it in his head, and then he said, “we got the wrong apartment!” and then they just stormed out. And I was nobody.
Bug’s memories of that night are hauntingly vivid. Blood splatters—evidence of the officer carrying Destiny’s lifeless body—stained the hallway floors and walls for several days. “It’s disgusting,” Bug explained. “Walking in and out of the building, stepping over a baby’s blood, it haunts you.”
Community Members Suspect Police Engaging in A “Cover-Up”
In the immediate aftermath, Independence Police Chief Adam Dustman called a hasty press conference that can only be described as a state-sponsored disinformation campaign.
Standing in front of the cameras, Dustman confidently claimed that Maria Pike was “armed”—a claim directly contradicted by eyewitnesses and unsupported by any evidence so far.
“When we arrived, officers encountered a female who ultimately was armed with a knife,” Dustman recalls. “And as a result of that encounter, it resulted in two fatalities, one to the armed female and one to a child.”
While he appeared to know with certainty within hours of the tragedy that Maria was allegedly “armed,” he refused to answer the most basic and fundamental question: did his officers kill an infant? “I cannot confirm any of that,” Dustman said. “I’m not going to identify or get into any sort of ages or anything like that.”
How could Police Chief Dustman be so certain of the presence of a knife while refusing to confirm the most basic fact of whether the victim was an infant—despite being explicitly told by the grandmother that a baby was present and an officer carrying Destiny’s lifeless body in plain view?
This blatant refusal to admit they murdered an infant, combined with his willingness to perpetuate an unproven narrative that Maria was “armed,” is being interpreted by many as an orchestrated effort to manipulate public perception, criminalizing Maria Pike so that she appears to be the cause of her and her baby’s deaths, and obscuring the horrifying reality of the botched, merciless killing that occurred.
Not only did Police Chief Dustman refuse to answer basic questions about the shooting, but he also tried to frame it as a “broader issue of violence against children in our community.” As if the officers who killed a baby by shooting her in the head weren’t the most extreme example of such violence.
The Execution: Restraining Mental Health Responders & A Calculated Act of Terror
Not only did the cops raid the home before allowing the dispatched mental health co-responders to intervene, but Police Chief Dustman openly admitted to preventing the mental health responders from intervening, claiming that it would be inappropriate in this situation.
Dustman claimed during the press conference that “de-escalation attempts were made,” but the footage shows nothing of the sort. Video evidence, as well as Mitchell and Bug’s testimony, clearly show officers charging the building armed with military-grade weapons and aiming them at anyone who got in their way.
This contradiction reveals that Chief Dustman and the Independence Police Department are either (1) deliberately lying and covering up, (2) completely detached from credibility and the truth, or (3) both.
The blood-soaked stairwell reveals even more about the story that the police appear to be attempting to conceal. The Defender obtained photos showing crimson streaks trailing down the stairs, a horrifying testament to the officer who carried Destiny’s body out following the slaughter.
The Fascist Violence of Policing
What happened to Maria Pike and Destiny Hope is not an isolated incident—it is a symptom of a broader system of state violence and impunity.
The police acted not as peacekeepers or de-escalators, but as a domestic military-force and executioners, wielding the full force of militarized policing against a vulnerable mother experiencing a mental health episode and her baby.
Even if Maria did in fact have a knife, there is no conceivable scenario where responding by shooting a woman holding an infant, is a reasonable response. This is the reality of policing in America: a system that meets desperation with brutality, and silence with propaganda.
A Community’s Call to Action
As The Defender continues to investigate this horrific tragedy, we are reminded that police brutality transcends race.
While we typically focus on issues that directly affect Black communities, this case highlights the broader violence inherent in policing, particularly in poor and working-class cities such as Independence.
This impoverished family, struggling with serious mental health issues, was met with lethal force rather than compassion.
“To the police department, I want to say this: own up to what you did,” Mitchell’s sister, Felisha Holder, told The Defender in an interview, her voice unwavering despite the family’s grief.
Maria Pike, who was dealing with postpartum depression, needed assistance that day. “She needed help,” Felisha explained. “The cops weren’t here to help her.” Instead, Independence police escalated the situation by murdering a helpless mother and her infant.
The family has vowed to continue fighting for justice. “We can’t keep having these officers kill our loved ones and our community members” wrote Felisha. “I was out there protesting in 2020, and I know what the police do. I saw what they did to George Floyd and many others; we can’t keep letting them get away with it.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to cover Destiny’s funeral expenses, with family members determined to give the infant “a beautiful funeral.” Click here to make a donation.
The fundraiser post echoes the family’s distress: “The cops did not even negotiate with the mentally unstable woman. “They made a bad decision by shooting a woman who was holding a baby.”
The family’s call for accountability remains urgent, as they transform their grief into a powerful call for change. “We will not stop,” Felisha declared. “Justice for Maria and Destiny is the only option.”
