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‘Where’s The Gun?' Family Of Woman Killed By Deputy During Traffic Stop Demands Answers
Hannah Fizer was shot by county authorities after allegedly running a red light and threatening to shoot a deputy, but her family isn't buying authorities' version of events.
A Missouri woman was shot to death by a sheriff’s deputy over the weekend during a routine traffic stop — and her family wants answers.
Hannah Fizer was allegedly speeding and had run a red light on Saturday evening when a Pettis County Sheriff’s deputy attempted to pull her over, according to authorities. She ran from law enforcement but eventually pulled over in a “secluded location,” the Missouri State Highway Patrol alleged.
Fizer was “not compliant” and warned the deputy she had a gun and was going to “shoot him,” the agency said in a statement.
“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 Highway Patrol said.
Fizer was pronounced dead at the scene, officials said. The deputy was not injured in the shooting. Missouri State Highway Patrol, Troop A has taken over the investigation into the shooting at the request of the Pettis County Sheriff's Office.
Authorities didn’t immediately specify whether they retrieved a firearm from the scene, stating a search warrant for Fizer's vehicle was still pending, according to the Associated Press. It is not clear how the situation escalated so quickly.
The family of the 25-year-old woman are questioning law enforcement’s version of events — claiming that Fizer wasn’t known to threaten anyone.
“She wouldn’t shoot a frog,” her father, John Fizer, told The Kansas City Star. “I can’t even imagine, for one second, figure how she could’ve been a threat to anybody.”
John Fizer — who said his daughter had once aspired to become a police or parole officer — suspected the sheriff’s deputy may have mistaken her phone for a pistol.
“She always had her phone in her hand,” he said.
With the search warrant pending, the woman’s family and friends are demanding answers.
“Where’s the gun?” her boyfriend, James Johnson, 22, also asked, according to The Kansas City Star. “Where’s the gun at?”
Her stepmother also insisted that Fizer didn’t carry firearms.
“We need to know exactly how everything went down,” Lori Fizer told the Kansas City Star. “She weighed a whole 145 pounds and she was by herself.”
No known footage of the shooting exists. The Pettis County Sheriff's Office doesn’t use body or dash cameras, the Associated Press reported.
Fizer was recently arrested on different occasions for misdemeanor intoxicated driving and marijuana possession charges, according to separate court documents obtained by Oxygen.com. She pleaded guilty to both charges in March and April, respectively. Fizer was sentenced to two years probation in the drunk driving incident.
However, her family insisted she wasn’t violent.
“[She] was not a perfect angel by any means,” her father told the Associated Press. “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, a convenience store assistant manager, was on her way to work when she was shot.
Fizer’s shooting comes amid nationwide protests calling for widespread police reform in the wake of George Floyd’s killing by a Minneapolis police officer last month.
