Newsman: A teen girl was fatally shot by a Columbus, Ohio, police officer Tuesday afternoon while responding to a call about someone armed with a knife, officials said. Ma’Khia Bryant, a 16-year-old in the foster care system, was fatally shot, Franklin County Children Services said Tuesday night.
Interim Columbus Police Chief Michael Woods said police were dispatched around 4:30 p.m. after “a caller said females were there trying to stab them and put their hands on them.”
Police Chief Michael Woods said it was unusual to release police body camera video so soon, but police wanted to be transparent about the incident and provide what answers it could. A public records process is underway to release the full video, he said.
The Bureau of Criminal Investigation is conducting an investigation into the shooting, and Woods said the information released Tuesday night was based on police records and did not include any interviews with officers or witnesses.
Police said the video shows someone trying to stab one person on the ground and a second person.
The officer, who has not been publicly identified, will be taken off street duty, s Police Chief said.
Portions of officer body camera footage shown by police hours after the incident appeared to show the girl attempting to stab another female just before the gunfire.
Body camera video appears to show a fight when the officer arrives. Two females are in a confrontation, and one falls to the ground in front of the officer.
After the shooting, there appears to be a knife lying on the ground near the person who was shot.
Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther described the shooting as a “horrible, heartbreaking situation.”
“We know, based on this footage, the officer took action to protect another young girl in our community. But a family is grieving tonight,” he said.
City officials called the shooting a tragedy and urged calm and patience.
The girl who was later shot appears to move toward another person near a car, and the officer appears to repeat, “get down” before firing four times.
A person, apparently the officer who fired, says the girl went “at her.”
The video appears to show that officer later tell another officer who is attending to the girl who was shot, “she came at her with a knife.”
Shortly after the shooting, a crowd gathered to protest near the home where the shooting occurred, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
Tensions were already high in Columbus after the high-profile shootings of Casey Goodson, Andre Hill and Miles Jackson.
Jackson, 27, was shot and killed April 12 at Mount Carmel St. Ann’s Hospital in Westerville. The incident involved officers from Westerville and Columbus.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said that preliminary ballistic testing showed that Jackson “had a gun and shots were fired.” The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is leading the investigation into the deadly shooting.
Goodson, 23, was fatally shot as he was walking into his grandmother’s home in December by a Franklin County sheriff’s deputy. A deputy working with a U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force “reported witnessing a man with a gun” and fired at Goodson after a “verbal exchange,” Columbus police said at the time.
Goodson was licensed to carry a concealed firearm and was not the person being sought by authorities, police said. A preliminary autopsy showed that he was killed after multiple gunshot wounds to the torso.
The deputy who shot Goodson was identified as Jason Meade, a 17-year veteran of the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office.
Hill, 47, was shot and killed by Columbus police just days before Christmas. He was a guest at the home where he was shot. Both officers who interacted with Hill failed to activate their body cameras until immediately after the shooting, a violation of department protocol. Body camera footage showed that officers did not provide aid to Hill for several minutes after he was shot four times. Officer Adam Coy was fired days later and indicted in February on charges related to the fatal shooting.
Amid the controversies surrounding the shootings in December, Columbus Police Division Chief Thomas Quinlan stepped down in January after a brief one-year tenure. Quinlan was also criticized for his handling of protesters who demonstrated against racial injustice following the death of Floyd. More than 14,000 people signed a petition calling for his resignation, which said that Quinlan directed officers to use tear gas and mace on protesters.
