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In an unprecedented move, Columbus police showed body camera footage of the shooting of a 16-year-old girl by a Columbus police officer hours after the incident.
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, now identified as Ma’Khia Bryant and shot dead by police moments later, bumps into or swings 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 gun, as it sounds four times, and hits the girl.
Columbus police stressed that the Bureau of Criminal Investigation is leading the investigation into the case, but the city wanted to release the body camera to provide more information to the public.
“It’s a tragic day in the city of Columbus. It’s a terrible, heartbreaking situation,” said Mayor Andrew J. Ginther. “We felt transparency in sharing this footage, incomplete as it is at this point,” was critical.
Also on Tuesday evening, Franklin County Children’s Services confirmed that the girl killed was Ma’Khia Bryant, 16, who was in foster care and the care of Children’s Services.
Columbus interim police chief Michael Woods said officers were empowered to use lethal force to protect themselves or others. He said the investigation has yet to be completed to see if the officers’ actions are justified.
Columbus Public Safety Director Ned Pettus Jr. urged the public to be patient as the investigation continues, and city officials again called for peace.
“She could be my grandson,” said Pettus. “Whichever way you look at it, it’s a tragedy.”
Previous story:
A crowd protested near a house on the southeast side where a Columbus police officer fatally shot someone while responding to an attempted stabbing call.
The shooting took place just a few minutes earlier A guilty verdict was pronounced in the trial of Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer who killed George Floyd.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation was on the 3100 block of Legion Lane between Chatterton and Refugee streets Tuesday night to investigate a fatal shootout by a Columbus police officer.
News:The Columbus area leaders, activists, applaud Chauvin’s beliefs and cite the need for further change
Police received an 911 call at 4:35 pm about an attempted knife stab on the 3100 block of Legion Lane, north of Chatterton Road. The caller reported that a woman tried to stab her and then the caller hung up.
The officers responded to the scene and at 4:45 p.m. a shooting involving officers was reported.
The Columbus Fire police were unlocked to get on the scene at 4:46 p.m., police said. The wounded person was taken to Mount Carmel East Hospital in critical condition, where they were pronounced dead at 5:21 p.m., police said.
No one else was injured, Columbus police said.
The police did not provide any information about the person who was shot or the circumstances of the shooting.
District statistics:Franklin County has one of the highest rates of fatal police shootings in Ohio and the United States
Hazel Bryant told The Dispatch that she was Ma’Khia Bryant’s aunt. The girl lived there in a nursing home on Legion Lane and got into an argument with someone else in the house, she said.
Bryant said her niece had a knife but claimed the girl dropped the knife before she was shot multiple times by a police officer.
Protests arise at the shooting range
Protesters with Black Lives Matter signs, megaphones and a loudspeaker joined the crowd that had gathered behind the crime scene tape about half a block from the shooting range. By 8:30 p.m., about 50 people had gathered
“We’re not allowed to celebrate,” said KC Taynor through a chauvinist megaphone. “… in the end you know what, you can’t be black.”
Kiara Yakita, founder of the Black Liberation Movement Central Ohio, said she wasn’t surprised that another police shooting had taken place. “Why did you kill this baby?” she asked aloud.
Mike Fair, 63, of the East Side brought an amplifier and microphone to the scene and expressed his anger and suggested “there should be an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”.
We’re not going to sit here and just sit around while you kill us and then go back to the suburbs, “said one protester.
“Over and over again, kill us,” said another protester.
Hana Abdur-Rahim of the Black Abolitionists Collective said, “We are in literal genocide. We are fighting for our lives.”
Hardin vows reform during the session of Columbus City Council
During a council committee hearing on Tuesday evening, where members met candidates for a new civilian police review body to investigate the use of force by officers, council chairman Shannon Hardin announced that there had been renewed police shootings.
“We don’t know much about what it looks like, and when we saw the Minneapolis verdict, many spoke of the sigh of relief – but there is a truth that there is no relief for so many in our community. That is not in Okay, it’s not okay and can’t continue.
“We need to be as transparent as possible in learning more about the recent incident. But the truth is, nothing we are going to do is going to bring this young girl back. Nothing will stop the family.” Sadness. “
News:Derek Chauvin judgment celebrated at Columbus hair salon with fist pump, photos
Hardin told panel members interviewed that the recent shootings show why the city needs a civil review body, “and we need to fundamentally rethink security in our city.”
“It definitely shows what you, each and every one of you, should be doing in our community: ensuring control, accountability and transparency of policing in our community,” he said.
Reporters Marc Kovac and Bill Bush contributed to this story.
@ MarkFerenchik
