INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (KCTV) – Aunt and grandmother of 2-month-old baby who died in a police attack keep wondering how it happened.

They said the baby, Destiny, was being held by her mother, Maria, when shots were fired. Maria also died in the incident.

“We’re hurting,” said Felisha Holder, Destiny’s aunt. “Very badly hurt. I can’t hold her anymore. I want justice for her.”

Holder said she remembers the first time she met her granddaughter.

“I came to visit my mother,” Holder said. “I picked her up and said ‘Hey Destiny, Aunt Felisha is here’ and she just smiled and smiled.”

The family confirmed that Independence police responded to a domestic disturbance. Holder said Maria was becoming violent with her grandmother, Talisa Coombs. She said the officers knew there was a child in the apartment and her brother told her Maria was holding Destiny when the officers fired.

“He didn’t negotiate,” Holder said. “He could have pepper sprayed, he could have tasered, he didn’t do any of that. I don’t care what the circumstances were, there was a child in that woman’s arms and that woman had mental issues. She is mentally unstable. They could have had a professional there to negotiate the situation so that the child would be safe. They called the cops thinking they were going to protect baby Destiny, but instead they killed her.”

READ ALSO: Independence police are answering some questions after a shooting at Oval Spring Apartments leaves a woman and a child dead

Holder said Maria had a history of mental illness and had been diagnosed with postpartum depression. Coombs said she went to her son and Maria’s apartment almost every day to make sure Destiny was OK.

Coombs said he would not have called the police if he had known that would be the outcome.

“They asked me if I wanted to press charges and I did,” Coombs said. “I didn’t tell them to go out there and shoot them. You don’t shoot anybody with a baby. They could have done anything else, but they chose to kill my niece and her mother. If I had known that the child was in danger with the police, then I would never have said anything.”

Holder began to GoFundMe to pay for Destiny’s funeral expenses.

Authorities have not released much information about the officer-involved shooting, but last week they said two people — a child and a woman who was allegedly armed with a knife — were dead.

One press conference last FridayChief Adam Dustman supported his officer’s decision. Three officers, including the officer who fired the gun, are on administrative leave while the investigation continues.

this friday Oval Spring Apartments will host a memorial vigil for the deceased child. The vigil is scheduled for 7 p.m., and the public is invited to attend. The memorial will include candles and a balloon release in front of the building where the incident took place.

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