SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle police have launched an internal investigation after a 19-year-old homeless woman says she suffered a miscarriage after being pepper sprayed at an Occupy Seattle protest earlier this month.
Jennifer M. Fox says police kicked her and hit her in the stomach with a bicycle during a Nov. 15 protest and also doused her with pepper spray. The Seattle Times says Fox has declined to provide medical records supporting her claim that she had a miscarriage five days after being hit. She has said she was three months pregnant at the time. The Times reports that her family doubts her story.
Seattle police spokesman Mark Jamieson says the department is looking into the situation because of the “seriousness of her allegations.”
Fox’s former foster mother, Lark Stebbins, tells The Times that she spoke to Fox recently and she never mentioned she was pregnant. Stebbins says Fox has a pattern of exaggeration.