Last week in Missouri, a 25-year-old woman named Hannah Fizer was shot and killed by an officer with the Pettis County Sheriff’s Office during a routine traffic stop. Fizer was reportedly pulled over because she was speeding and passed through a red light.
The officer, who has not been named, claimed that she threatened to shoot him, but no gun was found in the vehicle.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol is now working the case and claiming to be an impartial outside agency.
In an initial statement from the Highway Patrol, they referred to Fizer as a “suspect” instead of a victim, and accused her of threatening to shoot the deputy.
“The suspect allegedly threatened the deputy by stating she was armed and going to shoot him. The incident escalated and the deputy discharged his weapon, striking the suspect,” the statement read.
However, she didn’t actually have a gun on her and there is no footage from a dashcam or body cam that would corroborate the officer’s story.
Family and friends say that she was on her way to work and that she was a friendly person who never carried weapons. They are finding the officer’s version of events very hard to believe.
Fizer’s manager at work, Melissa Rath, said that she was a great person.
“Everything that they’re saying that she supposedly did is way out of character. We’ve had several customers come in the last several days. They even said, ‘That doesn’t make sense to me, that doesn’t sound like her. Every time we’ve come in here she’s been respectful and really nice,’” Rath said.
John Fizer, Hannah’s father said that his daughter liked to party, but she was not violent.
“ She was not a perfect angel by any means. She liked to drink and smoke a little weed sometimes, but by no means was she violent. She was the kind of person that wouldn’t hesitate to give a homeless person $10,” Fizer said.
John said that when his daughter was previously arrested for a DWI, she immediately told the arresting officer that she knew she was in the wrong and did not resist at all.
A witness who was staying at a hotel near the traffic stop told The Kansas City Star that he noticed emergency lights flashing and noticed the two vehicles. He noted that neither vehicle appeared to be speeding when they pulled over to the side of the road.
During the encounter, the witness heard the officer shout “stop” before firing five shots into the woman, obviously shooting to kill. Unfortunately, the witness was not able to see what was happening in the car, but after hearing the shots they walked close to see what was happening.
He noticed that police were roping off the area, and covering Fizer with a sheet.
“That’s when I saw him covering her up with a sheet from head to toe,” he said.
Instead of condemning the actions of the officer, Pettis County Sheriff Kevin Bond continued to treat Fizer as a suspect. Bond also said that he would not tolerate his small town to be a “test project for some social justice experiment in rural America.”
“Are you willing to allow Pettis County to become the test project for some social justice experiment for rural America? I certainly hope not. Our nation is facing difficult times, and we are facing a difficult issue right here in our hometown. But it is important to remember that we must have faith in the American way, and not allow this type of social injustice to establish a stronghold here,” Bond said in a statement.