While they were reading the verdict of Derek Chauvin, 16 year old Ma’Khia Bryant was being shot 4 times by Columbus, Ohio police. She died at the scene. The police had been called because an adult woman tried to fight Bryant. (Updated)
The Columbus Dispatch reported that police officers were sent to the scene after a 911 caller reported an attempted stabbing, saying a female was trying to stab them.
In an unprecedented move, Columbus police showed body camera footage of the shooting of a 16-year-old girl by a Columbus police officer just hours after the incident on the Southeast Side.
The shooting, which happened about 20 minutes before a guilty verdict was announced in the trial of Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer who killed George Floyd, prompted hundreds to protest at the shooting site and Downtown.
The video shows an officer approaching a driveway with a group of young people standing there. In the video, it appears that the 16-year-old, identified now as Ma’Khia Bryant, who was moments later shot by police, pushes or swings at a person, who falls to the ground.
Bryant then appears to swing a knife at a girl who is on the hood of a car, and the officer fires his weapon what sounds like four times, striking Bryant, who died a short time later.
"It's a tragic day in the city of Columbus. It's a horrible, heartbreaking situation," Mayor Andrew J. Ginther. "We felt transparency in sharing this footage, as incomplete as it is at this time" was critical.
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“She was a good kid. She was loving,” Hazel Bryant, who said the child was her niece, told reporters on the east side of Columbus. “She was 15 years old. She didn’t deserve to die like a dog in the street.”
Bryant said her niece has been living in a foster home on the east side of Columbus where the fatal shooting took place. She said several adult women had come to the foster home and started an altercation with the teenager, who called police and her biological father and grandmother for help. She grabbed a knife to defend herself, Bryant said.
According to Bryant, who said she had been told of the events by Makiyah’s grandmother and father, Makiyah was in front of the house fending off a physical assault when police arrived, and she had already dropped the knife in the yard. But police shot her four times without any warning, she said.
“The police are going to lie. I’m so thankful that someone from the family was actually on the scene,” Bryant said. “The police are going to lie. The police are going to cover up for themselves. They don't care. At this point, I feel like they’re just out to kill Black people. They’re not here to protect and serve. That isn’t happening. That’s been over a long time ago. They’re not here to protect and serve. They’re here to kill Black folks.”
The Columbus Dispatch reported that police officers were sent to the scene after a 911 caller reported an attempted stabbing, saying a female was trying to stab them.
Bryant disputed information circulating in local media that Makiyah had tried to stab someone and appeared to be a threat, saying Columbus police had released false information to explain the shooting. “I’m overwhelmed,” Hazel said. “It’s awful.
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