Video Surveillance shows cops assault and kill young woman who was seeking help

© Courtesy of Heather Robertson

Kristina Coignard

A 17-year-old girl walked into the Longview, Texas police station. Then, only minutes later, police say they were "forced" to shoot and kill her, Thursday night. Now, the police have released surveillance footage that captured the final moments of Kristiana Coignard's life. Cognard walked into the empty lobby and approached the after-hours assistance phone.

"We don't know how she got here," Longview police officer Kristie Brian said. Coignard was connected to dispatch, via the after-hours phone. Dispatch then sent officers out to confront her. But no one knows exactly what was said then. Police, however, say that she "pulled a weapon" and "threatened" them.

We asked what weapon she brandished.

"I don't know what kind it was, yes she did brandish a weapon," Officer Brian said on Friday.

The teenage girl was pronounced dead by a justice of the peace after being taken to a local hospital. Coignard had struggled with mental illness since her mother died when she was only four years old. She had been hospitalized for bipolar syndrome twice in recent years. Her aunt, Heather Robertson, said that she had been on medication and seeing a counselor since she moved in with her family in December.

The video raises questions to many about whether police needed to shoot, and if they perhaps antagonized the situation, refusing to deescalate when the opportunities to do so presented themselves. One officer seems to have had her immobilized and under control. Still, she was shot and killed. Three officers were placed on administrative leave shortly after this incident.

Watch the surviellence footage below...

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