A pregnant woman who was shot in the head during a shooting at a Missouri mall last week has died, police confirmed Thursday.
The woman had been on life support after being shot in the temple Friday at Independence Center, according to a report by police in the Kansas City suburb of Independence. Police said she was four months pregnant.
Independence police have not released the victim’s name or age yet. A family friend gathering money to help pay for cremation costs identified her as 19-year-old Karla Brown in an interview with the Kansas City Star.
A 21-year-old Independence resident has been charged with armed criminal action and unlawful use of a weapon in the mall shooting. Independence police Officer Kelley Rupert in an email said those charges will be updated following the woman’s death.
Witnesses told police that the pregnant woman was with friends at the mall when they ran into the suspected shooter and several of his friends. One of Brown’s friends previously was in a relationship with the shooter’s current partner, which led to an argument and the shooting, according to the probable cause statement.
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Associated Press news researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.