Family and friends of 19-year-old Samantha Ramsey are overcome with grief — and demanding answers — after a cop fired four shots into a car the teen was driving. Ramsey was struck by one of the bullets and died on scene.
Dashcam footage shows the encounter seconds before Boone County Sheriff’s Deputy Tyler Brockman fired four shots into a car full of teenagers. Brockman was standing on the highway in front of his vehicle as Ramsey slowly pulled her vehicle in front of him. He shined his flashlight into her face and appeared to signal her to stop the car, but she continues moving the vehicle out of dashcam view. Seconds later, Brockman fired four shots, causing the car to careen into a ditch, according to Fox 19.
Two passengers exited the vehicle. The driver, Ramsey, had been shot. She was taken away in an ambulance, but had died on scene, according to The Huffington Post.
Brockman claimed Ramsey tried to run him over, and he fired the shots in self-defense. The dashcam footage complicates this narrative, however.
Even so, it is difficult to imagine a scenario that justified the shooting, which could have harmed multiple people. There were four people in the car in total.
“Just to be shot four times that’s excessive,” said Lynsy Hall, a friend of the victim, in a statement. “That wasn’t right. He could have killed the other three people that were in the car.”
Ramsey was leaving a party when the incident happened. She had been arrested once previously for driving under the influence.
Ramsey’s mother, Brandi Stewart, said she just wants answers.
“I just want to know what happened,” she said. “I want answers. The officer involved … I’m not, I’m not an unreasonable person. I’m realistic. He was the last person that looked in my daughter’s eyes that saw her face and I want answers.”
Brockman has been placed on leave pending the results of an investigation. Due to the high level of media and public scrutiny being paid to the case, Sheriff Michael Helmig asked the state police to handle the investigation.
State authorities declined, however.