An officer for the Columbus Police Department shot and killed a 15-year-old girl as she attacked two other individuals on a driveway in a residential neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio, with a knife Tuesday afternoon.
The bodycam footage shows Nicholas Reardon, the officer, arriving onto the scene when the 15-year-old teenager first attacked one woman with her knife, pushing her down onto the sidewalk, and then attacked a different woman swinging her knife. The officer repeatedly tells the girl to “get down” before he shoots her multiple times.
The 15-year-old teenage girl, Ma’Khia Bryant, lay sprawled on the ground after being shot, and officers attended to her, calling for a medic, checking for injuries, and performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
Prior to bodycam footage being released, some initially reported that Bryant was “unarmed” and relied solely on testimony from Bryant’s family.
As we breathed a collective sigh of relief today, a community in Columbus felt the sting of another police shooting as @ColumbusPolice killed an unarmed 15yo Black girl named Makiyah Bryant. Another child lost! Another hashtag. ✊????????????#JusticeForMakiyahBryant https://t.co/9ssR5gfqm5
— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) April 21, 2021
It’s not just the headline: even though the knife is clearly visible in her hand, the article never says it.https://t.co/9sRleqLYwJ pic.twitter.com/f27FSu6a4Z
— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) April 21, 2021
Interim police chief Michael Woods, at the press conference announcing the incident, explained that the officers would undergo an administrative investigation by another agency to ensure an independent review of what transpired.
The video of this incident was made public hours after the incident for the purpose of “transparency,” said Woods, leading to protests outside of the Columbus Police Department headquarters.
Protesters gathered outside the police department headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, after officers shot and killed a Black teenage girl https://t.co/wsjfKolLfl pic.twitter.com/yetr1n7m3I
— Reuters (@Reuters) April 21, 2021
Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther defended the officer’s action and asked for prayers from community members for the loss of life.
“We know based on this footage the officer took action to protect another young girl in our community,” Ginther told reporters, according to The Associated Press.