Columbus police released body material Tuesday night showing an officer fatally shot a 15-year-old girl earlier in the day.
The truncated video begins the moment the officer gets out of his vehicle and then meets the teenager who is apparently armed with a knife chasing a girl outside a house.
The girl who was chased falls on the lawn in front of the policeman. The officer yells at the suspected suspect to ‘come down’, before the teenager targets another girl on the hood of a car, the video shows.
As the teenager swings the apparent weapon at the second girl, the officer fires several shots at the suspected suspect and hits her.
Police said they were called to the home around 4:45 p.m. for an attempt to stab her with a knife.
After the gunfire, two adults remained outside. “She’s a child, man,” one of the officers could be heard saying.
A blade with black handle like a kitchen knife can be seen in the video lying on the sidewalk next to the girl.
Police did not identify the teenager, but family members told 10TV she was Ma’Khia Bryant.
Bryant’s aunt told The Columbus Dispatch that Bryant lives on the block in a foster home.
The shooting, which took place shortly after Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis police officer, was convicted of the murder of George Floyd, caused protests in the city.
The officer who fired the fatal shots has not been identified. But he was taken off the streets in anticipation of an investigation, interim police chief Michael Woods said in a press release Tuesday night.
It was not immediately clear if the two other girls who were attacked were injured.
Woods said the department, for the sake of transparency, moved quickly to release at least a portion of the body chamber images.
Under state law, police could use lethal force to protect themselves or others, and investigators will determine if this shooting was such a case, Woods said.
Andrew Ginther, mayor of Columbus, also addressed the media on Tuesday night, where he appeared visibly shaken.
‘This is a tragic day in the city of Columbus. “Horrible, heartbreaking situation,” he said.
“The city of Columbus lost a 15-year-old girl today.”
“Based on this footage, the officer acted to protect another young girl in our community,” the mayor said.
‘But a family is mourning tonight. And this young 15-year-old girl will never come home. ”
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is conducting an independent investigation into the shooting, the mayor said.