From [HERE] and [HERE] An unarmed Black woman told officers she was pregnant just before she was shot multiple times in Kansas City, Missouri, according to a witness.

Leonna Hale, 26, had her hands up in the moments before officers shot her in the parking lot of a Family Dollar store on Friday night, a woman identified only as Shédanja told The Kansas City Star. 

Shédanja said Hale was attempting to run away from officers when they shot her five times.

he Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP) said the shooting occurred as officers with the Kansas City Police Department (KCPD) attempted to arrest the occupants of a car in connection with a reported armed carjacking.

The officers had spotted a vehicle matching the description of a stolen vehicle at the Family Dollar at Prospect and East 6th Avenues shortly before 8 p.m. on Friday, MSHP said on Twitter.

As officers attempted to make contact with the vehicle's occupants, a man exited the vehicle, fled on foot and was apprehended, the MSHP said. He was not identified.

The highway patrol said Hale exited the vehicle and fled into the store's parking lot. "Two officers fired shots," MSHP added. "A suspect handgun was recovered from the scene. Hale was seriously injured & her condition is stable. No other injuries."

Shédanja, who had gone to the store with her three children, described a scene where officers opened fire on a woman who allegedly posed no threat.

She told The Star that when she arrived at the store she heard officers yelling "get out [of] the car" to two people in a vehicle next to hers.

A man got out, jumped a fence and fled, she said, and three officers ran after him. Hale got out of the vehicle with her hands up, Shédanja said.

When officers told her to get on the ground, she told them she was pregnant and couldn't, Shédanja said.

Officers repeatedly asked Hale to get down, she said, and at one point, Hale told officers there was a gun in the vehicle.

Hale then started backing towards a fence and several officers approached her with their guns drawn, Shédanja said. "She did not pull out a weapon on them," she said. "She did not even have a stick in her hand."

According to Shédanja, Hale had taken just three steps to run away from the officers when they fired five times. "I remember it because it didn't stop. They shot five times," Shédanja said. Newsweek has reached out to her for further comment.

In a video she captured following the shooting, Hale is seen lying on the ground with blood on her shirt as other officers arrive on the scene and one appears to handcuff her.

The witness account of the shooting has prompted outrage on social media

"She had her hands up and told police she could not follow their directions to get on her stomach b/c she was pregnant. There is no reforming this," tweeted activist Leslie Mac.

Britni Danielle wrote: "How many people have to die before y'all realize police can't be reformed? Leonna Hale deserved better. We all do."

"She'd have been safer if, instead of being unarmed and pregnant, she were armed in a school shooting children," added Steve Cox, referring to the delayed police response to the shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, last week.