TEMPE, AZ — A Valley mom says she's suffering from emotional distress after deputies fired shots just inches away from her one-year-old daughter.
On September 13, Rosalynn Brown says she left her daughter, Jea'raha-Lynn Haynes, in the car with her half-nephew Elijah Boatley while she and a friend went inside a store near 48th Street and Broadway.
A few seconds later, video shows deputies box in Boatley's vehicle with guns drawn. The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office says Boatley exited the vehicle, allegedly holding a gun. Moments later he was shot and killed.
"Soon as I get ready to walk toward the door all we hear is, 'Freeze. Stop what you're doing. Get down on the ground. Boom, boom, boom,'" Brown said. "They were just telling me to stay back. I'm like, get my baby. My daughter's in the car in the backseat. Get my daughter."
Video shows a deputy eventually get her little girl from the backseat and hand her over. But Brown says with the windows of that vehicle rolled down and bullets flying, she fears it could've been worse.
"[There's] nothing that the FATE [Fugitive Apprehension and Tactical Enforcement] team could've been able to do, say or give to bring my daughter back if something would've happened to her," Brown said.
She says she and her daughter are now suffering from anxiety.
"Seeing Elijah going through the door and seeing him laying like that, that's not something that a young child at her developing age should've had to go through," Brown said.
The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office says Boatley was a suspect in an attempted burglary case and was accused of shooting at firefighters.
Brown says she had no idea what Boatley was wanted for or that the car they were driving in was reported stolen. She says if she had known, she never would've put her daughter in that kind of danger.
She says she has also yet to receive her belongings left in the car that night and questions how law enforcement handled things after the shooting.
"They made me feel like I was a suspect," Brown said.
Brown also questions why deputies used lethal force.
"They didn't even give him enough time, even if he had a gun," she said.
Brown says she's now looking for an attorney and is considering legal action to help her daughter.
"All I want is to be able to get her a counselor, a therapist to talk to. Someone who can come and let me know that my daughter is fine," Brown said.
Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone says deputies had no idea a child was in the car at the time. A spokesperson sent the following statement after ABC15 reached out about Brown's concerns:
"This case remains under investigation. As you are aware, our detectives worked around the clock when this occurred to update the members of the media and the public in a timely fashion. Our detectives are still working different aspects of this case, which would include processing the stolen vehicle they were in that night. That might have something to do with the release of the property.
We will continue to work this case and detectives will contact her and other parties involved when the investigation calls for it.
At this time, all aspects of the case remain under investigation."
