Woods also played new body camera footage from the scene, as well as audio from two 911 calls that prompted officers to respond. City officials promised an independent probe by the state’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation and called for patience while the process plays out.
The new details shed little additional light on the circumstances that led to the shooting and are unlikely to quell concerns among local residents and activists, who have questioned whether the officer could have defused the situation without opening fire.
The footage — much of it nearly identical to a video clip played by police Tuesday — shows Bryant lunging toward two people in a driveway before Reardon fired four shots. A knife is briefly visible in her hand and later in the driveway next to her as police perform CPR on her.
In the 911 audio, a woman’s voice can be heard telling the dispatcher that someone is “trying to stab us” as people scream in the background. A second caller asks for police to come to the neighborhood and then hangs up when she sees officers outside. Police said they haven’t determined who the callers were.
Hazel Bryant, who said she is Ma’Khia Bryant’s aunt, told The Washington Post in a brief interview Wednesday that “the body cam doesn’t show the truth of what occurred.” She said she didn’t personally witness the incident but arrived at the scene soon after. She described her niece as “so loving and kind.”
Others asked why police didn’t do more to try to de-escalate the situation before the officer opened fire.
“As soon as he got out of the car, he had the gun ready to shoot somebody,” Kiara Yakita, founder and president of the grass-roots group Black Liberation Movement Central Ohio, told The Post. “Law enforcement and city officials are rushing to make excuses because she had a knife. Those excuses are not valid to me.”
Officials urged the public to remain calm while investigators try to determine whether Reardon’s use of lethal force was justified.
Ned Pettus Jr., director of the Columbus Department of Public Safety, said he understood the “outrage and emotion around this incident” but said not to “rush to judgment.”
“A teenage girl is dead. And she’s dead at the hands of a police officer. Under any circumstances that is a horrendous tragedy,” Pettus said.
“But the video shows that there is more to this,” he said. “It requires us to pause, take a close look at the sequence of events, and though it is not easy, wait for the facts.”
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) addressed Bryant’s death at a news conference, saying that he had watched video of the shooting and that the investigation must “play out.”
“Any time anyone is killed, it’s a tragedy. Any time a teenager, a child, is killed, it’s a horrible tragedy,” DeWine said.
In Wednesday tweets calling for statewide police changes, DeWine said the nation “must learn from the tragic death of George Floyd.” DeWine said his office has worked with state Rep. Phil Plummer (R) — a former Montgomery County sheriff — on a legislative package to be introduced in the next few days.
The bill, aimed at “accountability and transparency,” would create a “peace officer oversight board” akin to professional boards with the power to suspend medical licenses; launch a central use-of-force database and officer discipline database; and mandate independent investigations of “critical incidents” that involve an officer, according to DeWine.
Columbus currently hands off its investigations of fatal shootings involving police to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, an arm of the office of Attorney General Dave Yost (R).
The shooting has inflamed tensions between police and residents in the city of almost 900,000, which was already grappling with the fallout from the fatal police shootings of Casey Goodson Jr., 23, and Andre Hill, 47, both Black men who were killed in December.
Bryant was shot just before a jury in Minneapolis convicted former officer Derek Chauvin of murder in the killing of George Floyd, whose death last year ignited a nationwide racial justice movement.
Hundreds of demonstrators staged a sit-in at Ohio State University’s student union Wednesday and then marched through town in protest of Bryant’s killing and the university’s connections with city police. The previous night, about 100 protesters circled the streets of downtown Columbus. They were followed by vehicles honking horns, waving Black Lives Matter flags and chanting ,“No justice, no peace,” as they passed the Statehouse, city hall and police headquarters.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said President Biden had been briefed on the shooting.
“The killing of 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant by the Columbus police is tragic. She was a child,” Psaki told reporters Wednesday. “And her death came just as America was hopeful of a step forward after the traumatic and exhausting trial of Derek Chauvin and the verdict that was reached.”
Psaki added that police violence disproportionately affected communities of color, saying that “Black women and girls, like Black men and boys, experience higher rates of police violence.”
In the footage shared by police, the officer identified as Reardon can be seen emerging from his vehicle as Bryant appears to chase someone, who falls onto the sidewalk. The teen then turns toward someone else wearing a pink sweatsuit and takes a swing at her head, a blade briefly visible in her hand. The officer fires four shots at the girl, leaving her sprawled next to a car in the driveway.
“She had a knife. She just ran at her,” one officer says on the footage.
A second video shows a different officer running up as Reardon fires shots, after which he takes a young girl on the scene into his squad car. Another clip showed officers performing CPR on Bryant. “Come on Ma’Khia, stay with us,” one of them can be heard saying.
Footage taken at the scene by a neighbor shortly after the shooting shows two police officers kneeling over Bryant. One is performing chest compressions. She appears unresponsive and blood is pooled on the ground beneath her. Around them, several more officers tape off the area as family and neighbors cry.
Immediately after the shooting, Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther (D) appeared to defend the officer, saying he “the officer took action to protect another young girl in our community.”
At Wednesday’s news conference, he called Bryant’s death “tragic” and said it was the result of a “failure on the part of the community.”
“Bottom line — did Ma’Khia Bryant need to die yesterday? How did we get here?” he said. “Some are guilty but all of us are responsible.”
Reardon will be taken off street duty pending the investigation, according to the interim police chief. The Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office will review the results and present them to a Franklin County grand jury. The police department will also review that incident for policy compliance or violations.
Leadership at the local police union, Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge #9, did not immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment. The Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio referred questions to the local lodge. The Post could not immediately reach Reardon.
On Tuesday night, the state FOP wrote in a statement posted to social media that justice “is a process” rather than “a specific verdict.” Apparently responding to the Chauvin’s conviction, the group went on: “When evidence proves an officer’s wrongdoing, the jury is right to find guilt and today they did just that.”
“What can’t be allowed,” the group added, “is the dangerous leaping to conclusions that we saw before the process of justice was complete.”
The scene of the shooting was quiet Wednesday afternoon. The yellow police tape had been taken down, and several bouquets of flowers were laid on the lawn near where Bryant was shot.
Adriana Usero, Hannah Knowles, Reis Thebault and Teo Armus contributed to this report.
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