“We don’t have all the facts yet, but we do know that a 16-year-old girl, a child of this ward, tragically died last night,” Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther told reporters.
“Bottom line: did Ma’Khia Bryant have to die yesterday?” he added. “How did we get here? This is a failure of our church. Some are guilty, but we are all responsible.”
Ginther said state investigators would determine “if the officer concerned was wrong and if he was we will hold him accountable”.
Police identified the officer who fired the shots as Nicholas Reardon, who was hired in December 2019. The officer is off duty pending an investigation. Police union comments were not returned.
The fatal shots come at a time when police across the country – and Columbus specifically – are using force. In February, former Columbus police officer Adam Coy was charged with fatal shooting charges Andre Hill, a 47 year old black man.
Late Wednesday afternoon, a crowd of protesters – including Ohio State University students – marched toward the State Capitol in downtown Columbus. They sang “Black Lives Matter” and “Hands up. Don’t shoot.” They also sang the name of Ma’Khia Bryant.
Hundreds gathered in different sections of Columbus throughout the day as they walked to police headquarters.
Police try to revive the teenager after the shooting
The girl’s mother, Paula Bryant, and Franklin County Children’s Services had identified the teenager as Ma’Khia Bryant.
In a series of clips from a video with a police camera, the girl is seen holding a knife with another young woman during a fight. An officer arrived at the scene and opened fire when the girl appeared to be trying to stab a second woman.
“She’s a child,” a man at the scene told the police officer after four shots had been fired. “Damn it, are you stupid?”
Ma’Khia fell to the ground, the knife by her side.
“She came up to them with a knife,” says the officer who fired his weapon.
The situation developed quickly, according to clips from the body cameras of three officers on the street. Ma’Khia, holding a knife in her right hand, attacked a pink-clad woman who turned to face her when the teenager appeared to be trying to stab her. Then the shots rang out.
The officers tried life-saving measures “almost immediately,” said interim police chief Michael Woods, who said the first paramedics were on site within six minutes.
In the video, an officer can be heard asking, “Where is she being hit?” The officer begins life-saving measures. “Stay with us,” he says to the girl and asks people nearby for their names.
“Stay with us, Ma’Khia,” he pleaded.
Officials asked the community to wait for all the facts to become known.
When an officer “is confronted with someone using lethal force, lethal force can be the answer,” Woods told reporters.
When asked about the policy on the use of tasers versus handguns, Woods declined to comment on the specific incident, but said: “If fatal force is not used against another person at this point, an officer may have the opportunity to cover distance and time. ” use a taser. “
“But if those things are not there and there is an active attack that could kill someone, the officer can protect his third person with his firearm,” he added.
Ginther said the Criminal Investigation Bureau would investigate the officer’s actions.
“I understand the outrage and emotion about this incident,” said Ned Pettus Jr. at a press conference. “The video shows that there is more to it. We have to pause.”
Governor calls fatal shots a “terrible tragedy”
Republican Governor Mike DeWine described the police fatal shooting of Ma’Khia as a “terrible tragedy” and praised Ginter’s transparency in the publication of the videos of the incident.
“You can’t get over having a teenager who is dead and that’s a terrible, terrible tragedy,” DeWine said at a briefing. “We have to look at the facts.”
DeWine added, “We should have enough compassion to care for every child who is shot in our cities. And we shouldn’t accept them.”
Ginther told reporters Tuesday that “based on this footage, the officer has taken action to protect another young girl in our ward … but one family is in mourning tonight …”
“We have a duty to protect the public and ourselves, certainly the public,” said Keith Ferrell, President of the Capitol City Lodge Number 9 Police Union, in a video about CNN subsidiary WSYX.
“These kinds of decisions are made by civil servants every day, and with this transparency the public can see it. Unfortunate as it is, we may not know how many additional lives may have been lost or people seriously injured.”
The shooting took place approximately 30 minutes before the verdict was announced George Floyd. A jury found former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty.“As we collectively breathed a sigh of relief today, a Columbus community felt the stab of another police shot,” said Ben Crump, attorney for the Floyd family tweetedWhen filming on Tuesday Police received one Called at 4:32 pm saying “Women were there to stab them and put their hands on them,” said Michael Woods, interim police chief of Columbus.
When the police arrived, the first officer on the spot approaches a group in the driveway of a house, according to the officer’s bodycam footage.
The video shows a teenager moving quickly towards another girl with a knife, and the girl falls to the ground. The officer yells, “Hey, hey, hey, hey. Get down!” before she seems to attack a second girl with a knife, according to the video.
The officer tells her to “Down! Down! Down! Down!” then fires four rounds at the teenager.
An officer takes care of the victim of the shooting. Officers checked the girl for injuries and called a medic as per the protocol, Woods said.
“Ma’Khia had a motherly nature. She promoted peace. I want to be reminded of that,” said Bryant, the girl’s mother, said television station WBNS.
A neighbor says the video showed that the teen “was the attacker”.
A neighbor of Ma’Khia Bryant told New Day that the video of Ma’Khia’s death showed that the teenager was “the attacker.”
“I can certainly understand why the policeman stopped them. Well, whether or not less lethal force could have been used, whether or not a taser could be used in place of a weapon – I don’t know,” said Ira Graham III. Said John Berman from CNN. “But I know Ma’Khia, who had this deadly weapon in hand, had to be stopped.”
Police had no information on whether the other two people were injured, Woods said.
The officer will be off the street pending an investigation by the Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) into the Ohio Attorney General, Woods said. The investigation then goes to the Franklin County Grand Jury and then back to the Police Department for internal review, Woods said.
On Tuesday evening, Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin spoke on Ma’Khia’s death during a committee meeting to consider candidates for a new civilian review body that will oversee the city’s police force. Noting the collective “sigh of relief” that came with the Minneapolis chauvinist trial, he added, “There is a truth that there is no relief for so many in our community.”
Ma’Khia’s death, Hardin said, “pinpointed the need for police oversight and accountability”.
CNN’s Elizaberth Joseph, Kristina Squeglia, Melissa Alonso, Madeline Holcombe and Chuck Johnston contributed to this report.
