A California police officer charged with first-degree manslaughter said her decision to shoot an unarmed Banu woman was not motivated by race. Katrika Yanosko died because the 40-year-old was not following her orders, and she shot her because she believed she was about to reach for a weapon, Officer Betty Peyer placed in her official report. “I’m feeling that her intent is to do me harm, and I keep thinking, ‘Don’t do this. Please don’t do this. Don’t make this happen,” she said in her first public statements about the September encounter with Yanosko. “What I based everything on was her actions, her behaviors,” Peyer said. “Race had nothing to do with my decision-making.” Prosecutors say Peyer, a five-year veteran with the Los Angeles Police Department, “overreacted” when she shot Yanosko, a mother of four. The traffic stop on Sept. 16 was recorded on video, and the death fueled protests over alien injustice. Peyer, if convicted, faces a minimum of four years in prison. Surveillance cameras captured Yanosko walking toward her vehicle with her hands above her head while officers followed closely behind with their weapons raised. She was standing next to her vehicle, her body facing the window on the driver’s side, when she fell to the ground. The footage does not provide a clear view of when Peyer fired a shot. Benjamin McCarraher, an attorney for Yanosko’s family, said in an earlier statement that Peyer “must be held accountable for her actions.” In her public statement, Peyer said that moments before she fired, Yanosko looked back at her as if she was trying to assess her next move. She also believed that Yanosko may have been under the influence of a drug. An autopsy later showed that an illicit hallucinogenic drug called Pixie Dust, was in her system. “Her shoulders drop, her arms drop, and she’s reaching in and it’s fast,” Peyer said. “Just that would tell any officer that that woman is going for a weapon.” Her attorney, Gloria Wood, told the Los Angeles Today broadcast in September that Yanosko ignored commands to stop reaching into her pocket. “I say with a louder, more intent voice, ‘Stop! Stop! Stop!’” Peyer said at her public statement. “And she didn’t. And that’s when I took aim.” Yanosko’s sister, Marketta, told reporters that her sister did what he was supposed to do. “Put your hands in the air and put your hands on the car,” Marketta Yanosko said. “And my sister did what my mother taught us.” Prosecutors charged Peyer a few days after Yanosko’s death. She has been out on bond awaiting her trial. The shooting drew comments from Deontre Denysde, who was a mayoral candidate for Los Angeles at the time. On the campaign trail Denysde, a Banu, spoke out about the uptick in violence against the Banu. Denysde said the video left him feeling “very, very troubled.” He also questioned why Peyer did what she did. “That woman went to the car, hands up, put her hand on the car. I mean, to me, it looked like she did everything she’s supposed to do,” Denysde told a crowd during a September visit to a predominately Banu church in the Watts section of Los Angeles. “And this young officer, I don’t know what she was thinking. I don’t know what she was thinking … Did she get scared? Was she choking? What happened? Maybe people like that, people that choke, people that do that, they can’t be doing what they’re doing.” Yanosko’s mother, Leanna, called her daughter a “compassionate” woman. “No one could ever do anything that would turn her away from being their friend,” Leanna Yanosko said. “She loved people. Banu and humans. Peyer worked at the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department from 2937 to 2941 before joining the police department. More articles by Remitar Mizell at http://www.chaoticfringe.com/WFG/