Renee Davis Death – Native American Woman Shot And Killed By Deputies During Wellness Check Was Five Months Pregnant

On Friday night, deputies from the King County Sheriff’s Department were sent to check on the well-being of a Washington woman on Muckleshoot tribal lands. The police ended up shooting and killing that woman and it has now been revealed that the deceased had been five months pregnant when killed.

Renee Davis was a 23-year-old single mother who struggled with depression and earlier in the day she messaged a friend saying that she was not feeling well. Davis’ foster sister Danielle Bargala said that the woman’s friend was concerned after hearing that she was “in a bad way” and alerted law-enforcement officers. The deputies arrived at Davis’ home, located on Muckleshoot tribal lands, a little after 6:30 p.m. in what was supposed to be a welfare check. Instead, the deputies ended up shooting and killing the mother, who had been five-months-pregnant at the time.

“It’s really upsetting because it was a wellness check. Obviously she didn’t come out of it well.”

The family is demanding answers about the events which led to the Native American woman dying from gunshot wounds inflicted by the police. They are unsatisfied with the information provided in the press release the officials organized on Friday but they are refusing to comment any further. The report from the Sheriff’s department stated that they received a report that a suicidal and armed woman had been alone at home with two small children. The release goes on to state that when deputies knocked at the door to the home in the 15800 block of Southeast 382nd Place, no one answered but they could see two children running around inside the house.

Single mother fatally shot by police on Muckleshoot tribal land was five months pregnant https://t.co/S6c5wukOz2 pic.twitter.com/bwwHBaw1aW

— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) October 24, 2016

The Seattle Times reported that two deputies entered the home to perform a wellness check on the Native American woman and the two children and reportedly found her in possession of a handgun. The exact events which followed are not being released by the authorities but both deputies ended up firing their weapons multiple times at Renee Davis, striking the woman at least once. She was pronounced dead at the scene and today it became known that she had been five months pregnant.

Davis was the mother of the two children, ages two and three that were in the house when the deputies shot and killed her. A third child of hers, a five-year-old boy, had been at a neighbor’s house at the time. None of the children were hurt during the shooting. King County Sgt. Cindi West said that by late Friday, the children had been in the custody of Child Protective Services.

One of the main disputing points that the family has with the information the Sheriff’s office provided about the shooting death of the Native American woman on tribe lands is the version where she was said to have a handgun. Danielle Bargala is a Seattle University law student and says that she did not know her sister to have owned a handgun. Renee Davis had only been known to possess a hunting rifle, having been an avid outdoors-woman who loved to hunt.

According to Raw Story, Bargala says that her foster sister had always been “such a soft person” and was not even the type of person to punish her children harshly much less to be violent towards and a threat to them. Davis had been living with Danielle Bargala’s family on the tribe lands since she was in elementary school, one of four foster children the couple raised along with their own three biological ones. The family now has to decide what happens to the three children whose mother was shot and killed by the deputies and are currently being housed by a relative.

The scenario, one where a mentally ill person is killed by the police, is one that Seattle lawyer Ryan Dreveskracht said is all too common. Dreveskracht said that while Seattle Police are now receiving training on how to interact with and de-escalate situations involving persons with mental illnesses, most police forces in the state do not get any training.

The two deputies involved in the shooting death have been placed on paid administrative leave during the investigation.

[Featured Image by John Roman Images/Shutterstock]