COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Columbus police shot and killed a teenage girl who swung at two other people with a knife Tuesday, according to bodycam footage from the officer who fired the shots just minutes before the verdict in George Floyd’s killing was read.
Officials with the Columbus Division of Police showed a segment of the footage Tuesday night just hours after the shooting took place in a neighborhood on the city’s east side. The decision to swiftly release the video was a departure from protocol as the force faces immense scrutiny from the public following a series of recent high-profile police killings that have led to clashes.
The 10-second clip begins with the officer getting out of his car at a house where police had been dispatched after someone called 911 saying they were being physically threatened, Interim Police Chief Michael Woods said at the news conference. The officer takes a few steps toward a group of people in the driveway when the girl, who was Black, starts swinging a knife wildly at another girl or woman, who falls backward. The officer shouts several times to get down.
The girl with the knife then charges at another girl or woman who is pinned against a car.
From a few feet away, with people on either side of him, the officer fires four shots, and the teen slumps to the ground. A black-handled blade similar to a kitchen knife or steak knife lies on the sidewalk next to her.
A man immediately yells at the officer, “You didn’t have to shoot her! She’s just a kid, man!”
A Black teenage girl named Ma’Khia Bryant was killed because a police officer immediately decided to shoot her multiple times in order to break up a knife fight. Demand accountability. Fight for justice. #BlackLivesMatter.
— Valerie Jarrett (@ValerieJarrett) April 21, 2021
The officer responds, “She had a knife. She just went at her.”
Body camera video released by Columbus Police in Ohio shows #MakiyahBryant attacking another female with a knife before she is shot by police. #BLM have been protesting, calling the shooting racist because Makiyah is black. pic.twitter.com/LY1HaJyI1F
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) April 21, 2021
The race of the officer wasn’t clear.
The girl was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead, police said. It remains unclear if anyone else was injured.
Police did not identify the girl or her age Tuesday. One family member said she was 15, while another said she was 16.
The shooting happened minutes before the verdict in the killing of George Floyd was announced. Protesters who had gathered peacefully after that verdict to call for police reform and accountability quickly shifted their focus to the killing of the girl. The crowd of about 100 could be heard chanting outside police headquarters as city officials offered their condolences to the family and acknowledged the rarity of showing bodycam footage so soon after a police shooting.
Woods said state law allows police to use deadly force to protect themselves or others, and investigators will determine whether this shooting was such an instance.
Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther mourned the loss of the young victim but defended the officer’s use of deadly force.
“We know based on this footage the officer took action to protect another young girl in our community,” he told reporters.
Meanwhile, outside the briefing, hundreds of protesters pushed past barriers outside police headquarters and approached officers as city officials were showing the bodycam video inside. Many chanted, “Say her name!” While others signified the victim’s age by yelling, “she was just a kid!” Officers with bicycles pushed protesters back and threatened to deploy pepper spray on the crowd.
Columbus, Ohio: Despite police releasing body camera footage showing that #MakhiaBryant was trying to stab other black girls with a knife before getting shot by police, #BLM protesters continued to call her death a murder. pic.twitter.com/HPj7cwPWbo
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) April 21, 2021
The shooting happened about 25 minutes before a judge read the verdict convicting former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin of murder and manslaughter in the killing of Floyd. It also took place less than 5 miles from where the funeral for Andre Hill, who was killed by another Columbus police officer in December, was held earlier this year. The officer in Hill’s case, Adam Coy, a 19-year veteran of the force, is now facing trial for murder, with the next hearing scheduled for April 28.
Less than three weeks before Hill was killed, a Franklin County Sheriff’s deputy fatally shot 23-year-old Casey Goodson Jr. in Columbus. The case remains under federal investigation.
Last week, Columbus police shot and killed a man who was in a hospital emergency room with a gun on him. Officials are continuing an investigation into that shooting.
Kimberly Shepherd, 50, who has lived in the neighborhood where Tuesday’s shooting took place for 17 years, said she knew the teenage victim.
“The neighborhood has definitely went through its changes, but nothing like this,” Shepherd said of the shooting. “This is the worst thing that has ever happened out here and unfortunately it is at the hands of police.”
Shepherd and her neighbor Jayme Jones, 51, had celebrated the guilty verdict of Chauvin. But things changed quickly, she said.
“We were happy about the verdict. But you couldn’t even enjoy that,” Shepherd said. “Because as you’re getting one phone call that he was guilty, I’m getting the next phone call that this is happening in my neighborhood.”
Farnoush Amiri is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Kryska reported from Hoboken, New Jersey.
Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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A man immediately yells at the officer, “You didn’t have to shoot her! She’s just a kid, man!”
The officer responds, “She had a knife. She just went at her.”
“What percent of murders are committed by juveniles?
In all, twenty-five percent of all serious violent crime involved a juvenile offender.“
If he didn’t shoot the outcry would have been….. why didn’t you stop her……no win for the officer….. 1500 knife deaths per year say shoot
I agree. Damned if he did, damned if he didn’t. IMO ITS high time cops need to just STOP RESPONDING TO calls from black areas.. LET THEM Kill each other the hell off.
I have a suggestion for all law enforcement, regardless of the color of their skin. If you are in a situation similar to this one, WAIT! Let the attacker kill at least one other person, and make absolutely certain you have that murder recorded on your body cam. Wait to see if they kill another and get that recorded too. Shoot ONLY if they charge at you or a fellow officer, and then shoot to kill. Make sure the video where you shoot the attacker clearly shows at least one dead body on the ground killed by the attacker. Before the bodies are cold, blast broadcast that video to the entire solar system. At the end, insert the question “Was there anyone in this video we should have protected?”
OR just LEAVE. And let them kill everyone around…
Another product of the welfare system. One less criminal on the streets. Good riddance to these people that act like less than human beings. Good for this police officer.
That is why we must defund welfare. And go to a one child only policy while on welfare.
SNIP them to ensure that one child policy. AND DO THE SAME For those who get abortions.. ONCE the first one is done, IF YOU GET a 2nd, then you get snipped.. PERIOD!
Let me see. Billy the kid was a teenager who killed. Miyamota Musashi was another teenager who killed. I am sure we have many more who killed there parents and the proclaimed to be orphaned. Children and small people can kill just as much as gun toting people and big people. Do get caught in this B S hype.
I forgot, where it was down in AZ last year, but a BLACK cop killed a black kid, who ran at HIM WITH a machette, after the kid had already Slashed his mother.. AND THE STUPID 9tch, whined “WHY Did you kill my kid”?
I;d have just LET THE Kid have his way, while i left…
“Many chanted, “Say her name!” While others signified the victim’s age by yelling, “she was just a kid!” Officers with bicycles pushed protesters back and threatened to deploy pepper spray on the crowd.”
The proper response to this would be to shout back at them the name of the woman they saved by shooting her attacker.
THEY Don’t care about those who were SAVED by the cop. JUST the thug the cop killed… ITS ALWAYS how it is..
I guess that black privilege gives you the right to do whatever you want without consequences.
The result of the Chauvin trial will only reinforce that too.
ALong with all other trials on going for ANY Cop who shoots a black perp.. IMO its honestly getting to the point where ANY COP comes upon a crime scene IN PROGRESS where there’s a black perp, they should just get back IN Their car and drive away.
I was HOPING, since ohio is a red state, that we wouldn’t SEE this insanity of mass protests outside ‘police HQ’s, here..
GUESS i was wrong.