Family and friends of Hannah Fizer, 25, are demanding answers from state officials after the convenience store worker was murdered by an as yet unidentified Pettis County deputy during a June 14 traffic stop in the city of Sedalia, Missouri. Sedalia, population 21,700, is located roughly 90 miles southeast of Kansas City.
Fizer, who was white, had been recently promoted to assistant manager and was on her way to work Saturday night at an Eagle Stop convenience store after spending the day with family and friends. She was pulled over by a Pettis County deputy at approximately 10 p.m. near West Broadway Boulevard and Winchester Drive.
According to the limited information provided in a press release by Patrol Sergeant Andy Bell of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, which has taken over the official investigation, the unidentified deputy initiated the traffic stop after Fizer was observed “speeding” as well as engaging in “careless and imprudent driving.”
The seven-sentence press release then states that “the subject was non-compliant” and “allegedly threatened the deputy by stating she was armed and going to shoot him.” The very next sentence alleges that “The incident escalated quickly and the deputy discharged his weapon, striking the suspect.”
Fizer was pronounced dead by Pettis County Coroner Robert Smith shortly after he arrived at the scene of the crime Saturday evening. The deputy was not injured.
In an interview Sunday morning with the Sedalia Democrat Pettis County Sheriff Kevin Bond confirmed that there was no bodycam or dashcam footage of Fizer’s murder. Bond also could not confirm if any weapon was recovered in the vehicle or what the circumstances were that led to the “escalation.”
As part of the investigation police are combing the surrounding area for security camera footage and asking “anyone with information” to contact them. Why the killer cop did not have a body camera or a dashcam has not yet been volunteered by police spokespersons.
Notably the deputy who murdered Fizer has yet to be interviewed or publicly identified. According to investigators a warrant to search the young woman’s vehicle is “still pending.”
Fizer’s family have disputed police accounts that she was armed or would have threatened a police officer. Hannah’s father John Fizer, in an interview with the Kansas City Star, claimed Hannah “… wouldn’t shoot a frog,” and the only thing she carried with her was “a cell phone,” and “… is not threatening in any way.” “She’d be the first one to give to a beggar on the street.”
Hannah’s stepmother Lori Fizer, 51, likewise did not know her to carry a weapon, telling the Star, “We need to know exactly how everything went down.” “She weighed a whole 145 pounds and she was by herself.”
Fizer’s aunt Frances Fizer-Gaddy, 56, who lived a short drive from her niece’s apartment, drove to the site of the shooting where she found blood on the pavement along with some fresh flowers recently left behind.
Fizer-Gaddy also believes that her niece did not carry a firearm and that her easy-going and quiet personality did not match the description of the aggressive assailant with a death wish as police have portrayed her. “I just want them to get to the bottom of it, get to the truth.”
Speaking to the Star three days after her murder, Fizer’s boyfriend James Johnson, 22, asked a simple question for state investigators: “Where’s the gun?”
Fizer graduated from Marshall High School in 2014 and is survived by her 21-year-old brother and four step-siblings. Since she did not have life insurance; the family is asking for donations to help cover funeral costs through the Rea Funeral Chapel in Sedalia.
Fizer was the second person killed by Missouri police on Saturday. An unidentified white male was shot by Kansas City Police Department officers Saturday afternoon at roughly 2 p.m. after fleeing from police. The man allegedly pointed a handgun at officers as he ran from the scene of an accident. As with Fizer’s killing, the Missouri State Highway Patrol will be overseeing the investigation.
These latest slayings are grim reminders of the class nature of police violence and an objective repudiation of the racialist narrative put forth by the Democratic Party and their functionaries. Police are once again on track to kill over 1,000 people this year. While African-Americans are disproportionately murdered, the largest number of victims are white and all are overwhelmingly poor and working class.
Figures provided by the Washington Post, which are several weeks old, estimate that 479 have been killed by police so far this year, 191 of which the Post classifies as white, not including these two most recent slayings.