Police in Columbus, Ohio, shot and killed a 16-year-old black teen girl.
The authorities said that the girl hit two people with a knife, as can be seen from the police video.
A few hours after the shooting, the Columbus Police Chief Michael Woods said in a speech that the relevant officer was responding to the 911 emergency call. There was information that someone is attempting to stab in a house on the southeast side of the city.
After arriving at the scene, the police found the black girl waving a knife, attacking a woman who fell backward, and then attacked another woman, as shown in the video. Everything happened in the front yard of the house.
The slow-motion video showed that the second victim stumbled on a parked car in the driveway. A young girl with a knife raised it as if to stab, and a police officer fired. The teenager immediately fell onto a parked car and fell to the ground.
Authorities said the teenager who was shot was a teenage girl. Family members have confirmed that she is 16-year-old Makia Bryant.
The police chief said that the video showed that the murdered teenager tried to stab two women and made the footage public for “transparency” a few hours after the incident.
According to official details, police received a call at approximately 4:30 p.m. A lady called for help as someone attacked with a knife. Police officers reached the scene in about 15 minutes.
An unidentified police officer approaches a group of people fighting as he asks, “What’s going on?” In the next few moments, Bryant can be seen fighting with another girl.
She pushes one girl to the ground and approaches a second girl in an apparent attempt to stab. It can be seen in the body cam video that the officer shouts to ‘get down’ before pulling out his gun and shooting in Bryant’s direction. Ma’khia Bryant can be seen falling to the ground, as the officer approaches her.
The police officer who fired the gun is unidentified, but it appears white from the video.
Someone standing on the side is heard shouting to the officer, “She’s just a kid!”
Immediately after sunset, this incident triggered protests in the main streets of the city. Protesters gathered at the shooting scene.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) has begun investigating the case. At the same time, the city’s Director of Public Safety Ned Pettus called on all parties to exercise restraint, continue investigations, and expose what he called the “destructive” loss of life.
