Woman who said she lost her foetus at house party shooting was never pregnant, say police
'Hours and days have been wasted following leads known to be lies,' the police chief says
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Your support makes all the difference.An Ohio woman who claimed her unborn foetus was killed in a shooting at her gender reveal party was never actually pregnant, police have claimed.
Cheyanne Willis, 21, told the media that her foetus was killed when two men stormed into her house and opened fire earlier this month.
Ms Willis’s cousin, 22-year-old Autum Garrett, was killed in the shooting. Eight others were injured, including three children ages 11, 8, and 2, a police spokesman told The Independent at the time.
Family members told multiple media outlets that Ms Willis had planned to reveal at the party that she was having a baby boy. Instead, they said, she lost her foetus after being shot in the leg. Police could not confirm these reports at the time.
Now, officers say the young woman not only didn’t lose her foetus – she was never pregnant to begin with.
Colerian Township Police Chief Mark Denney said that police had been "given information we have found to be false”.
“Hours and days have been wasted following leads known to be lies when they were provided to our officers,” he said in a statement. "From the very beginning of this investigation, we have met significant resistance that is uncommon from victims of crime wanting a resolution.”
Police have yet to make any arrests in connection with the 8 July shooting.
Recordings of 911 calls from the night in question reveal chaos at the scene. Women can be heard screaming in the background as the callers beg for ambulances to be sent. At least four people called to report the incident, police said.
In one of the recordings, a caller can be heard saying: "They just ran in and started shooting. There's a pregnant girl here."
"I think a baby's been shot. I think I got hit," another caller says. "There's a whole lot of people here shot.”
A police report on the incident states the shooting took place on a Saturday night, as the gender-reveal party was winding down. The group had just settled in to watch a Spider-Man movie when two men in hoodies burst into the house and began wordlessly spraying bullets, police were told
Autum Garrett's husband, Bryan Garrett, was also shot, as well as the couple’s young daughter and son. Three children and five adults were hospitalised for their injuries.
The Colerain Township Police Department declined to comment further for this article.
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