Baytown - An 11-year officer with the Baytown, Texas, Police Department shot and killed a 44-year-old woman Monday night in the parking lot of the apartment complex where she lived, authorities said - an altercation that a witness captured on video.
Investigators have not released the name of the officer, but they said the woman's name was Pamela Shantay Turner.
According to police, the officer was patrolling the Brixton Apartments in Baytown, a midsize Texas city east of Houston, at 10:40 p.m., when he saw Turner. Authorities said she was wanted on warrants for assault and criminal mischief, and the officer knew her from previous interactions.
He tried to arrest her, Baytown police Lt. Steve Dorris said, and a "struggle ensued."
Witness video from the encounter, which was posted to social media and went viral overnight, shows the officer attempting to apprehend the woman near a parked vehicle. At least one person can be seen watching from a yard.
Fuck Baytown PD Y'all ain't have to shoot that lady y'all on some straight bullshit!!! There's a such thing as Less Lethal you dumb ass bitches.. on top of that the lady had mental issues !! pic.twitter.com/1v71WjnVTe
— Chris Landry (@RealChrisLandry) May 14, 2019
"I'm walking," Turner says. "I'm actually walking to my house."
The video is dark, but it shows what appears to be her breaking free from the officer and moving toward the apartment buildings.
"You're actually harassing me," she says. There is a popping noise, then the sound of a deploying stun gun. The two appear to struggle and the woman falls to the ground.
She yells, "I'm pregnant!" Police are awaiting confirmation of that fact from a medical examiner. The stun gun noise is heard again. The officer backs away, and she sits up. Then he shoots - rapidly, five times.
Dorris told reporters Monday night that the woman was struck by at least one bullet and died at the scene.
According to police, the officer tried to deploy his stun gun at the woman during the struggle. When he tried to handcuff her, she grabbed the weapon and turned it back on the officer. The stun gun grazed the officer, something police call a "drive stun," zapping him momentarily. That's when he pulled out his gun and fired, Dorris said.
"It's a tragic event for everybody involved," Dorris said during an interview with local CBS affiliate KHOU. "Of course, our hearts go out to the families of the deceased as well as our officer."
The officer has been placed on paid administrative leave, Dorris said. He was not injured severely enough to be treated at a hospital.
Dorris said he does not plan to release the name of the officer, at least not for several days. He said "as a matter of practice," he keeps names of officers involved in such incidents private so the officer does not get "bombarded" with media requests.
The Harris County District Attorney's Office is investigating, and the department will conduct an internal review.
Paid administrative leave is "not a vacation," Dorris said. "They need time to cope with that and wrap their brains around what transpired."
Dorris said the officer was wearing a body camera during the shooting, but authorities have not released the footage, since the investigation is ongoing.
Raquelle Cuellar, a resident in the apartment complex, told ABC 13 that the woman was often spotted walking her dog in the area. "It was a sad situation," Cuellar said. "Tragic."
Floyd Rubin, who said he has two children with Turner, told CNN that authorities have not shared information about the shooting with him and his family.
Dorris told reporters that police would like to interview the person who witnessed the shooting and made the video, though he was critical of the decision to post it to social media.
"It's unfortunate that someone takes a tragic incident like this and starts posting it on social media," Dorris told KHOU. "It's extremely disrespectful for everybody involved. But that's the day and age we live in with social media."
Since 2015, The Washington Post has maintained a database of fatal police shootings in the United States. In the first five months of 2019, at least 323 people have been shot and killed by police in the United States.
Conversations about implicit bias and their deadly consequences have been a major part of the past decade, and video recordings of encounters between civilians and police have helped raise awareness of police use of force.