As the country and maybe even the world held their collective breaths waiting to hear Derek Chauvin’s fate as the former Minneapolis police officer faced murder charges in the death of George Floyd, in Ohio another police officer shot and killed a Black teenager.
Graphic body camera footage shows the Columbus, Ohio officer shoot the Ma’Khia Bryant, 16, in the chest after she attempted to cut two other women with a knife.
WARNING: GRAPHIC AND VIOLENT CONTENT
"Ma'Khia was a foster child, who was under the care of Franklin County Children Services," the FCCS said in a statement. "This was a tragic incident and FCCS is continuing its involvement with the family throughout this difficult time."
Some news reports gave Bryant's age at 15, but her mother told stations she was 16.
The shooting happened about 30 minutes before Chauvin’s verdict was delivered and less than five miles from where the funeral for Andre Hill, who was killed by another Columbus police officer in December, was held earlier this year.
The officer in Hill's case, Adam Coy, a 19-year veteran of the force, is now facing trial for murder, with the next hearing scheduled for April 28.
"As we breathed a collective sigh of relief today, a community in Columbus felt the sting of another police shooting," Floyd family attorney Ben Crump tweeted.
Police received a call at 4:32 p.m. EST reporting that “females were there trying to stab them and put their hands on them," Columbus Interim Police Chief Michael Woods said in a Tuesday night press conference.
When police arrived, the bodycam video shows a fight between two people, and then a teen quickly move toward another teen girl with what appeared to be a knife. The office yells, "Hey, hey, hey, hey. Get down!" before she appears to lunge at a second girl with the knife, according to the video.
The officer tells her to "Get Down! Get down! Get down! Get down!" and then fires four shots in the direction of the teenager.
Officers attended to Bryant. She was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead, police said.
The officer has been taken off the job while an investigation by the Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) in the Ohio Attorney General's Office takes place.
"We know based on this footage, the officer took action to protect another young girl in our community," Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther said at the news conference. "But a family is grieving tonight and this young 15-year-old girl will never be coming home."