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Columbus police officer fatally shoots Black teenage girl

21 April 2021
Dan Ackermann

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is investigating the fatal police shooting of a Black teenage girl in Columbus on Tuesday afternoon.

Of note: The shooting of the girl, identified by family members as Ma'Khia Bryant, 16, occurred just before the verdict was announced in the Minneapolis murder trial of former officer Derek Chauvin, and as the nation grapples with police reform.

What's happening: Community members gathered at the scene into the night, some shouting "enough is enough" and asking about body-cam footage, according to local news reports.

  • Mayor Andrew Ginther urged residents in a Twitter post "to remain calm" and allow investigators to "gather the facts."

Details: Law enforcement responded to reports of a disturbance about 4:45 p.m., police said.

  • The Columbus Division of Police released bodycam footage during a Tuesday night news briefing they said indicated that a girl was trying to stab two people with a knife before she was shot.
  • She was transported to a local hospital where she was later pronounced dead.
  • Police did not name the officer involved in the shooting but said he had been "taken off the streets."
  • Ginther said at the briefing, "We know based on this footage the officer took action to protect another young girl in our community."

For the record: Hazel Bryant, who identified herself to media as the teenager's aunt, said "her niece had a knife, but maintained that the girl dropped the knife before she was shot multiple times by a police officer," according to the Columbus Dispatch.

  • Franklin County Children's Services told the New York Times the teenager "had been in foster care" when the shooting happened.

What they're saying: City of Columbus public safety director Ned Pettus said at the briefing that "no matter what the circumstances," a family was "in agony."

  • "They deserve answers, our city deserves answers, I want answers," he added. "But fast, quick answers cannot come at the cost of accurate answers."
  • Ben Crump, the attorney for the family of George Floyd, who was killed by Chauvin, tweeted: "As we breathed a collective sigh of relief today, a community in Columbus felt the sting of another police shooting. ... Another child lost! Another hashtag."

Editor's note: This article has been updated with more details from the briefing and comment from the Franklin County Children's Services.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.