Pregnant St. Louis woman loses left eye after police officer shoots non-lethal round at car

Would have posted this in Posse Comitatus but the new topic button has been gone for me for a few days, so here it is.

LINK

A pregnant St. Louis woman lost her left eye after a violent run-in with law enforcement earlier this week. Dornnella Conners says an officer fired a non-lethal bean-bag round at the car she was in – shattering the passenger side window. Shards of glass bloodied her face and robbed her of sight in her left eye, according to reports. “I will have justice for what they did to me but I’m happy I’m alive,” she wrote on Facebook on Thanksgiving.

That is horrible what happened, and also being pregnant.
Thankfully she is a live though.

a reply to: TheSilverGate


Drive by shooting, ... sort of.

How about disarming the cops?

originally posted by: deckdel
a reply to: TheSilverGate


Drive by shooting, ... sort of.

How about disarming the cops?

Can we disarm the criminals first? And I don't mean "thugs with a badge" or any of that. Because personally, as long as the "bad guys" have guns I'd prefer the "good guys" have them too.

That being said, it doesn't sound like she and her boyfriend were just sitting there drinking a Pepsi. Need more details though, from all sides.

a reply to: TheSilverGate

Another reason why ALL COPS should have mandatory camera recordings on their person.

Both to protect them from any false accusations and true justifications and protect the PUBLIC from any of their abuses of authority.

I think the obvious question is what was a pregnant woman doing in the middle of a protest that everyone knew was going to turn violent?

Secondly, she says in her statement that she and her boyfriend were "angry" and the police surrounded their car at a gas station before the beanbag round was fired.

There's A LOT more to this story that we haven't heard.

Apparently they feared for their safety.

What is going on over there?

originally posted by: Taggart
Apparently they feared for their safety.

What is going on over there?

From the sound of HER side of the story, she was either sitting in the car while a group of people (apparently including her boyfriend judging by the warrant for his arrest) looted the gas station or she participated in the looting. 16 people were arrested and gunshots were fired.

The police arrived and surrounded their car as they tried to leave and she probably moved in a way that seemed threatening or she was told to stay in the car and decided to disobey that command so the officer fired the beanbag round at her. It sounds like her boyfriend ran...

She's not the completely innocent bystander that the article first makes her out to be.

cop fires non lethal round
someone does not die
still complaining?????

now that i actually read the article there is something else to say


from the article

Police say they arrested 16 suspects at the station after gunshots were reportedly fired.

^^^possible gunshots fired at the bp...that means someone possibly had at least 1 gun.
this lady and her bf were trying to haul ass out of there. cops stopped them....
i wonder why the cops would stop them?

nah, nevermind.
they should have just let people that might have been popping shots off split...no worries

unreal

all we hear is why dont they use something besides guns?
pepper spray..this...that...

then when it happens, thats wrong too

originally posted by: Grovit
cop fires non lethal round
someone does not die
still complaining?????

Yes the unborn baby just needs to learn to say hands up don't shoot because the woman could have a bomb under her skirt, well that's the sort of crap the police are allowed to get away with nowadays.

a reply to: VirusGuard

did the baby lose an eye?
impossible to tell she was prego from in the car
should cops assume all females are prego then?

situation was pretty tense in that town leading up to and after the decision
probably not the best idea for a prego lady to make a bp run
just saying

originally posted by: VirusGuard

originally posted by: Grovit
cop fires non lethal round
someone does not die
still complaining?????

Yes the unborn baby just needs to learn to say hands up don't shoot because the woman could have a bomb under her skirt, well that's the sort of crap the police are allowed to get away with nowadays.

Don't be so sensational.

She's a pregnant woman who chose to involve herself in a dangerous situation.

Everyone knew the protests would turn violent but she went anyway.

Her boyfriend was driving the car when it was surrounded by police but there's a warrant for his arrest... so apparently he ran.

We know a tiny fraction of the story and it's all from her side...

a reply to: TheSilverGate

While I would never be one to support shooting ANY projectile at a person unless they have been confirmed as carrying and brandishing the means to do the same, I think that before any reasonable conclusions can be reached about the situation presented to us here, more data will have to be accumulated and provided.

hmm now this is a hard one ...

i hate siding with the cops ever

but ur in the parking lot of a store being looted and pregnate with shots fired i woulda been outs there long befor the cops where even called

sounds alot like they where the looters

originally posted by: Shamrock6

originally posted by: deckdel
a reply to: TheSilverGate


Drive by shooting, ... sort of.

How about disarming the cops?

Can we disarm the criminals first? And I don't mean "thugs with a badge" or any of that. Because personally, as long as the "bad guys" have guns I'd prefer the "good guys" have them too.

That being said, it doesn't sound like she and her boyfriend were just sitting there drinking a Pepsi. Need more details though, from all sides.

good luck with that....it is every Americans god given right to own firearms...that includes police and criminals alike.....you cannot have it both ways now can you......this is the price you pay for having an armed society....

a reply to: hopenotfeariswhatweneed

Yea my comment was entirely sarcasm. I have zero interest in being disarmed.

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: TheSilverGate

While I would never be one to support shooting ANY projectile at a person unless they have been confirmed as carrying and brandishing the means to do the same, I think that before any reasonable conclusions can be reached about the situation presented to us here, more data will have to be accumulated and provided.

Thank you for your reasonable response, TrueBrit. It's sadly refreshing.

I agree that there is more information that needs to be learned; however, I really question the use of a bean bag round at a vehicle. If it hits the car, what is that going to do? If it hits a window, that's establishing a high risk of maiming an individual for the rest of their lives by adding shattered glass into the mix.

Here's another version of the story from NBC: www.nbcnews.com...

In this one, they expand upon the Yahoo article posted in the OP and I really very much want to highlight those differences.

The Yahoo article stated that they were parked at the BP and that Conner (the pregnant woman) was angry at the Grand Jury decision. The NBC article states that they had gone to get gas early Tuesday morning soon after the protesting erupted and that they were not involved with the protest (makes sense, one who is pregnant probably should not go to a protest these days).

Yahoo article "Lee was trying to get away". NBC: "her boyfriend was trying to maneuver around police."

The Yahoo article cited a warrant being out. The NBC article stated St. Louis police stated on Friday that Lee had been arrested and charged.

Two radically different articles on the same subject and it's to "holy crap" levels. I actually prefer the NBC article because it's more informative and Yahoo seems to be focusing on the protest and emphasizing that aspect as to any revealing of details surrounding the incident itself.

St. Louis article on the same subject:
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Based on this one, Lee admitted to driving towards the detective but that's all that is said about it. According to the St. Louis article, Lee veered around the detective. If shots were being fired and he had a pregnant girlfriend in the car, could explain the "get out of dodge" response. Probably the best one of the three and it actually covers the most facts in total.

In times like these, multiple sources are mandatory. Hope this proves your above point, TrueBrit. I went through a dozen but these were the three most substantially different ones.

a reply to: WhiteAlice

Good post. I read the nbc article but couldn't get the other one to load. Might be because I'm on my mobile though, not sure.

One thing that seemed odd to me: the articles say they went to get gas "early Tuesday morning, shortly after the announcement." Or words to that effect. Either way the two articles both said they were out in the early morning hours. In a city experiencing protests. Some were violet protests. I don't know about you, but if I realize at 2 in the morning I need gas, and I'm in a city that has protests going on, I think I'm probably going to wait till later on to get gas instead of driving out into the maelstrom.

a reply to: Shamrock6

Could be the mobile issue as it did request a once question survey about Google Chromebook use before looking at it.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch article actually clears that one up. Here's a couple quotes about that:

She and her boyfriend had gone to Ferguson late Monday night “just to be there,” her father said. “Like the young people do, in support, like kids do, but no violence, not looting. She just wanted to be there.”

But Dornella Conner did post an explanation on social media about the night she was hurt. She said she was not protesting or looting. She said she was at the gas station getting gas and snacks and trying to get home. She said the police cars pulled up and blocked her boyfriend’s car.

So the gist I got from the STL Post-Dispatch is this: the couple went down to support, were on their way out of there, picked up gas and snacks and then it went downhill for all involved there. Should explain why they were getting gas and snacks (especially the snacks as pregnant women are known for their appetites)--they were on their way back home. My opinion is that it was panic met with panic and the young woman lost her eye in the process.

a reply to: WhiteAlice

Aha! Thanks for the quotes and clearing up the link issue for me. Was worried I'd gone techdumb and didn't realize it.

It does clear things up as well. Though I think it's pretty questionable judgement to put herself out in the middle of all that, and stay out in it. Not an opinion on the shooting, just can't imagine doing that myself. If I had a pregnant wife/girlfriend I mean. I'm a guy. You know what I mean.

One more thing that I want to add about this after my fiance and I talked about it a bit more--what the heck did the detective think would happen if he had actually hit the driver? If he had, then driver would've most likely been instantly blinded and, instead of veering, hit the detective. If the detective had been wielding a gun, then there would've been the same thing--no veering plus the risk of dead weight hitting the gas pedal. KABOOM. I knew a couple that died that way. Husband died of a heart attack while driving, dead weight on the gas pedal = both dead.

It doesn't work like it does in the movies.