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https://scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3007983/three-children-shot-us-police-fire-vehicle-robbery United States & Canada
‘My daughter has a bullet in her brain’: three children shot as US police fire at robbery suspect’s pickup truck in Ohio
- Witnesses are still being interviewed after incident on Friday in Hugo, Oklahoma
Investigators inspect the pickup truck with bullet holes in its windscreen. Photo: KTEN via AP
Law enforcement officials have released little information about a police shooting Friday afternoon in a southeast Oklahoma town, declining to provide answers to what led officers to shoot at a robbery suspect in a pickup truck – injuring him and three of the four children inside.
Agents with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation say they are still interviewing witnesses to the shooting, which occurred at 2pm on Friday near a residential home in Hugo, a town of 5,000 people.
Hugo police detectives had been looking for William Devaughn Smith, a 21-year-old suspect in an April 11 robbery at a local Pizza Hut. The detectives were “attempting to make contact” with Smith on Friday, when “shots were fired” at 400 West Bissell Street, state authorities said in a news release.
Smith was shot, as were three unidentified children. Additionally, authorities have not released the names or ages of the children who were shot, though they have released no information about their relationship to each other or the extent of their injuries.
They did say a woman and fourth child were uninjured in the shooting, but their names were not released, either.
All six people were inside a pickup truck when the shots were fired, said OSBI spokeswoman Brook Arbeitman.
Olivia Hill identified herself as the woman in the truck in an interview with local television station KXII. Hill is the mother of the four children, she told the station.
“My four-year-old daughter was shot in the head, and she has a bullet in her brain,” Hill said through tears as she prepared to visit her injured kids at a children’s hospital in Tulsa.
“My five-year-old has a skull fracture. My one-year-old baby has gunshot wounds on her face, and my two-year-old wasn’t touched with any bullets.”
“I mean my children, for crying out loud,” Hill said. “Four innocent little children.”
It is unclear how many officers were involved in the altercation, and how many officers fired shots. The names of the officers involved have not been released, and it’s unclear if any officers have been placed on leave.
Arbeitman did not disclose whether Smith or others in the pickup truck had a gun, or if the gunfire was one-sided. She said the nature of the shooting – including the events that led to the gunfire – remain under investigation.
“We are still working to determine through our investigation exactly what happened between the officers making contact with him and a shooting ensuing,” Arbeitman said Saturday afternoon.
But according to reporting from KXII, Hugo police officials said that two officers were trying to approach Smith when he allegedly backed up the pickup truck and hit one of the officers, causing minor injury. Another officer was nearly hit, KXII reported, and began firing his weapon because he feared for his safety.
Arbeitman said that Smith was taken to a hospital in Paris, Texas, 30 miles south of Hugo, and treated for his injuries. He was released into police custody and faces a felony charge of aggravated robbery.
The April 11 robbery took place just after 8am at a Pizza Hut in Hugo. A man wearing black clothing entered the rear entrance to the restaurant and pressed an object into the back of an employee, police said. The man demanded money then fled.