Police Kill Knife Wielding Teen Girl in Texas

Three police officers have been placed on administrative leave after they shot dead a teenage girl in the lobby of a police station in Texas.

MOSCOW, January 27 (Sputnik) – 17-year-old Kristiana Coignard was fatally shot by police officers last Thursday on January 23 in Longview, Texas, after showing up at the local police headquarters Department "brandishing a weapon," AP reports.

Kristiana entered the station lobby requesting to speak to an officer with what officials said was a knife. Minutes later she pulled her weapon and was shot dead by three officers.

Police spokeswoman Kristie Brian said that when the unidentified officers arrived Coignard, she confronted them with a weapon and was shot four times after she “came at the officers.”

“When police arrived to assist her, that’s when she confronted them,” Brian said. “She did brandish a weapon. I don’t know what kind it was. She came at the officers and was shot.”

Kristiana Coignard was living in Longview with her aunt, Heather Robertson. In an interview with ThinkProgress, Robertson raised questions about the circumstances of Coignard’s death.

“I think it was a cry for help. I think they could have done something. They are grown men. I think there is something they are not telling us.”
Robertson said that her niece had been struggling with mental illness, including depression and bipolar disorder, since her mother died when she was four. She had been hospitalized twice in recent years after suicide attempts.

Texas Rangers are investigating the incident.