Traffic stop that led to Missouri deputy's fatal shooting of Hannah Fizer, 25, was caught on restaurant surveillance camera and perhaps on Fizer's cell phone

Hannah Fizer

A traffic stop that ended with a Missouri deputy fatally shooting 25-year-old Hannah Fizer was captured on a restaurant's surveillance camera, according to news reports. Also, authorities believe Fizer might have caught video of the incident on her cell phone, which was found in her vehicle. The new developments come from a search-warrant application filed by the Missouri Highway Patrol, which is investigating the incident. From a report at Associated Press:

A restaurant’s surveillance footage captured a Missouri sheriff's deputy fatally shoot a woman, and investigators were trying to determine whether the woman also recorded the encounter.

In search warrants, a Missouri State Highway Patrol investigator described the surveillance video as showing the Pettis County deputy make contact with 25-year-old Hannah Fizer on June 13 before drawing his gun. Fizer, who had been pulled over for speeding and careless driving, can be seen moving in her car before the deputy fired his weapon, The Kansas City Star reports.

The shooting comes amid increased scrutiny of officer-involved killings since the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Floyd, a handcuffed Black man, died after a white police officer pressed a knee into Floyd’s neck for several minutes as he pleaded for air and eventually stopped moving. Fizer was white, as is the deputy who shot her.

During the traffic stop, the deputy indicated Fizer refused to identify herself. She told the deputy she was armed with a gun and was going to shoot the deputy, according to the patrol. No gun was found in her car.

While the restaurant video likely was taken at some distance, Fizer might have caught a close-up of the encounter on her cell phone:

The deputy also indicated Fizer said she was recording the traffic stop, the warrants revealed. Fizer’s cellphone was found on the floor of the car. In one of the warrants, an investigator wrote he believed it could contain video or photographic evidence of the shooting. It has been sent to the state’s digital forensic center in Jefferson City for analysis and data extraction.

“Anything she had said or he had said we’re looking into,” said patrol Sgt. Bill Lowe.

The issue of whether the shooting was captured on video has been a concern for community members with questions about the shooting. No body camera or dashcam video of the encounter exists.

Here are more details about information revealed in the search-warrant application:

A surveillance camera in Sedalia captured the entire interaction between a Pettis County deputy and a woman that deputy killed.

The details come in a search warrant affidavit written by the Missouri State Highway Patrol as part of its ongoing investigation into the death of 25-year-old Hannah Fizer. The affidavit said a restaurant's surveillance camera shows the "entire" traffic stop and shooting between the deputy and Fizer.

A warrant request written by Trooper Kyle Seabaugh said the deputy also said Fizer told him she was recording the traffic stop on her phone. An inventory of items taken during the search of Fizer's car shows only a cell phone and a "projectile" taken from the car. The patrol found the phone on the floor in the front passenger side and the unidentified projectile in the driver's side door in front.

It does not say if the phone was recording at the time it was found. 

Seabaugh's affidavit also mentions that a camera on a nearby restaurant showed the stop.

"A review of the footage revealed [that] during the traffic stop, the Pettis County Deputy makes contact with Fizer, he then can be seen drawing his duty weapon, and Fizer can be seen moving within her vehicle, then the Deputy fires his weapon," Seabaugh wrote.

The warrant application said deputies called for help following the shooting at about 10:07 p.m., six minutes after the traffic stop. First responders tried to give her first aid, but Fizer was declared dead at the scene by the county coroner.

Seabaugh said the patrol found five shell casings near the driver's side door, as well as multiple bullet holes in the door and window. Fizer also suffered from "what appeared to be multiple gunshot wounds," according to the warrant request. Investigators did not find any other "projectiles" on the scene.

Seabuagh wrote that investigators were searching the car for "firearms, projectiles, spent cartridge casings, ammunition, and cell phones."

Here is video of a news report from ABC 17 in Columbia, MO:


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