(Newswire.net — November 29, 2014) — A pregnant woman lost her left eye and suffered glass cuts across her face after St. Louis County Police shot a bean-bag round that shattered the passenger window of the car she was riding in.
The incident occurred amid high tension following a grand jury’s decision not to indict white police officer Darren Wilson.
Heading towards Ferguson, the couple was stopped at a gas station in the 10000 block of Halls Ferry Road, just a couple of miles from Ferguson, Dornella Conners told KMOV. Her boyfriend, who was driving the car, tried to drive away when police arrived.
According to the St. Louis police department, officers were responding to alleged gunshots fired at the gas station.
Conners stated that her boyfriend De’Anglas Lee tried to drive around police when they opened fire. The St. Louis County Police Department claimed that Lee was driving right towards them.
“They pulled up while we were coming towards the street, De’Anglas was trying to get away, they blocked us from the side, front and back,” Conners said.
The St. Louis police department stated that an officer shot a “non-lethal” bean-bag round at the car, hitting the passenger window. The shattered window pieces injured Conners, and one of them cut her left eye.
The police department said that Conners received medical attention while her boyfriend drove away.
“I’m very upset, very disappointed with tactics that they used trying to get control of situation,” said Donnell Conners, Dornella’s father. “I understand tough job, I understand that it was chaos. There was no reason to fire upon innocent person sitting in a vehicle,” he told KMOV.
According to the police department, Lee didn’t pull over and tried to flee the location because there’s been a warrant issued for his arrest with bond set at $50,000.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Committee against Torture advocated Friday for the United States to investigate and prosecute police aggression and “frequent and recurrent police shootings or fatal pursuits of unarmed black individuals.”
According to Reuters, the UN is concerned over “numerous reports” of police brutality and use of excessive force against minorities, immigrants, and homosexuals, as well as racial profiling and police militarization.