Columbus Police Release Body Cam Footage Showing Fatal Shooting Of Teen Girl

Yesterday’s guilty verdicts in the George Floyd murder case will almost certainly send former Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin to prison for the rest of his life once the sentence is finally handed down next month. But already more police shootings are capturing the nation’s attention.

Roughly one week after the Civilian Office of Police Accountability of Chicago released body camera footage depicting the shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo, sparking national outrage, footage of yet another police shooting of a teenager has just been released.

Columbus police on Tuesday night released bodycam footage showing an officer’s fatal shooting of a 16-year-old girl earlier in the day. Police have not identified the teen, but family members told 10TV she was Ma’Khia Bryant. Bryant’s aunt told The Columbus Dispatch that Bryant lived on the block at a foster home.

In a social media post, Bryant’s mother described her daughter as a “peaceful, loving little girl” who had a “motherly nature about her” and “promoted peace.”

“Ma’Khia had a motherly nature about her. She promoted peace,” said the 16 year-old girl’s mother, Paula. pic.twitter.com/vhBauZn3Kc

— Lacey Crisp (@LaceyCrisp) April 21, 2021

The shooting has already sparked protests in the city that threaten to spread nationwide.

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is conducting an independent probe of the shooting according to Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther.

The truncated video begins at the moment the officer exits his vehicle and then encounters the teen who appears to be armed with a knife while chasing another girl outside of a home.

Seconds into the encounter, the girl who was being chased falls on the lawn in front of the cop. The officer screams at the girl wielding the knife to “get down”.

As the teen swings the weapon toward the second girl, the officer fires several shots, striking the teen. In the video, a black-handled blade resembling a kitchen knife can be seen in the video lying on the sidewalk next to the girl.

Police were called to the home at around 1645ET on Tuesday with reports of an attempted stabbing.

In the video below, which depicts a police press briefing where the video was played, the relevant footage begins at around the four-minute forty-five-seconds mark.