BAYTOWN, Texas – A police officer shot and killed a woman at a Houston-area apartment complex after she hit him with his Taser during a struggle, shocking him, police said.

In a video recorded by a witness and posted on social media, the officer can be seen standing over Pamela Turner and reaching down to try to grab her arms. Turner, who is lying on the ground outside the apartments in Baytown, yells "I'm pregnant." Moments later, something flashes as she reaches her arm out toward the officer. Suddenly, the officer pulls back, raises up from the ground and fires five gunshots.



Police Lt. Steve Dorris said Tuesday that the officer shot at Turner after she hit him in the groin with the Taser. Turner did not fire the stun gun but it shocked the officer when it struck him, Dorris said.

The lieutenant said police have since learned from the medical examiner's office in Harris County that Turner, who was 44 and black, was not pregnant. She was pronounced dead at the scene, he said. A spokeswoman with the medical examiner's office declined to comment.

The officer, who police have not identified by name, has been placed on paid administrative leave, Dorris said. The department is reviewing whether the shooting was in line with its policy on the use of deadly force, he said.

Before the shooting, the officer, who is Hispanic and an 11-year veteran of the police force, was patrolling the apartment complex and tried to arrest Turner because he knew she had outstanding warrants, Dorris said. The two had previous dealings, but Dorris did not provide further details about the interactions or Turner's warrants.


A pharmacy student prepares syringes during a free measles vaccination clinic.
Associated Press
But if those rates were to drop by just 10% from what they are now, it'd be a whole different ball game: suddenly, the decrease in overall immunity would mean DeSoto would be presented with almost 800 new cases of measles (almost 90 times as many illnesses).
That's a pretty alarming disparity, but the sad truth is that's the kind of thing we're up against in 2019 in the US — a year which has already eclipsed the entirety of 2018's measles infections (and it did so just three months into the year).

Other regions in Florida fare even more poorly under pressure. In the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach area, 111 measles cases could result, based on the current vaccination rates.

If those rates slip by 10% though, a stunning 54,476 people could be struck by the disease.

"And the concern there, of course, is when you have those number of cases, how long will it take before it exhausts the public health system?" Liller asked the Orlando Sentinel.

Read more: Tell-tale signs you or someone you know might have the measles

FRED isn't limited to Florida alone, however. The simulator can actually project the spread of measles epidemics across any state in the US, based on generalised 80% vs 95% vaccination rate calculations.

"In most cases, the difference between the 80% coverage scenario and the 95% coverage scenario is quite dramatic," the FRED team explains.

"This shows the importance of a high vaccination rate in providing protection for the entire community."

Have a go here and watch the results unfold yourself. This is what nonchalance — let alone dangerously ill-informed, anti-vax views— about infectious diseases could one day bring about in the places we live.

Even the researchers who developed the simulator are taken aback.