Columbus police shooting updates: Aunt says teen girl killed; crowd protests

An angry crowd protested near a home on the Southeast Side where a Columbus police officer fatally shot someone while responding to an attempted stabbing call.

The shooting happened just minutes before a guilty verdict was announced in the trial of Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer who killed George Floyd.

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation was on the scene Tuesday night on the 3100 block of Legion Lane, between Chatterton and Refugee roads to investigate a fatal shooting by a Columbus police officer.

Police received a 911 call at 4:35 p.m. about an attempted stabbing on the 3100 block of Legion Lane, which is located north of Chatterton Road. The caller reported a female was trying to stab them, then the caller hung up.

Officers responded to the scene and at 4:45 p.m. an officer-involved shooting was reported.

© Brooke LaValley/Columbus Dispatch The scene on Legion Lane on Columbus’ Southeast Side following a fatal police shooting. Columbus police responded around 4:35 p.m. Tuesday following a 911 call where the caller reported that someone was trying to stab them and then hung up.

Columbus Fire medics were cleared to come into the scene at 4:46 p.m., police said. The wounded person was transported in critical condition to Mount Carmel East hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 5:21 p.m., police said. 

© Brooke LaValley/Columbus Dispatch Hazel Bryant is embraced after addressing a crowd with her anger at the Columbus Police at the shooting of her niece following a fatal police shooting on Tuesday, April 20, 2021 near Legion Lane on the east side of Columbus, Ohio. Columbus Police responded around 4:35 p.m. Tuesday following a 911 call where the caller reported that someone was trying to stab them and then hung up. The person shot was then transported to Mount Carmel East where she later died at 5:21 p.m., according to Columbus Police.

No one else was injured, Columbus police dispatch said.

Police have provided no information about the person shot or the circumstances of the shooting. 

Hazel Bryant told The Dispatch that she is the aunt of the 15-year-old girl who was shot. The girl lived in a foster home there on Legion Lane and got into an altercation with someone else at the home, she said. 

Bryant said her niece had a knife, but maintained that the girl dropped the knife before she was shot multiple times by a police officer.

County statistics: Franklin County has one of highest rates of fatal police shootings in Ohio and the U.S.

Protests develop at shooting scene

Protesters with Black Lives Matter signs, megaphones and a loudspeaker joined the crowd gathered behind crime scene tape about a half-block away from the shooting scene. About 50 people had gathered by 8:30 p.m.

© Brooke LaValley/Columbus Dispatch Demonstrators gather at the corner of Templar Street and Legion Lane following a fatal police shooting on Tuesday, April 20, 2021 near Legion Lane on the east side of Columbus, Ohio. Columbus Police responded around 4:35 p.m. Tuesday following a 911 call where the caller reported that someone was trying to stab them and then hung up. The person shot was then transported to Mount Carmel East where she later died at 5:21 p.m., according to Columbus Police.

“We don’t get to celebrate nothing,” K.C. Taynor said through a megaphone of the Chauvin verdict. “…In the end, you know what, you can’t be Black.”

Kiara Yakita, founder of the Black Liberation Movement Central Ohio, said she is not surprised that another police shooting happened. “Why did they kill this baby?” she asked aloud. 

Mike Fair, 63, of the East Side, brought an amplifier and a microphone to the scene, and expressed his anger, suggesting “there should be an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”  

We’re not going to sit here and just sit around while you kill us, then go back in the suburbs,” one protester said. 

“Over and over, keep killing us” another protester said.

Hana Abdur-Rahim, with the Black Abolitionists Collective, said, “We are in a literal genocide. We are fighting for our lives.”

Hardin vows reform during Columbus City Council meeting

During a council committee hearing Tuesday evening that allowed members to meet nominees for a new police civilian review board to investigate officers’ uses of force, Council president Shannon Hardin announced that there had been another police shooting.

“We don’t know very much as it stands, and as we watched the verdict from Minneapolis many talked about the sigh of relief — but there is a truth that for so many in our community there is no relief. This is not alright, it’s not OK, and it can’t continue on.

“We’re going to need to have the utmost transparency as we go through and learn more (about the latest incident). But the truth is that nothing that we will do will bring this young baby girl back. Nothing will stop the family from grieving.”

More: Columbus area leaders, activists applaud Chauvin conviction, cite need for more changes

Hardin told the panel members being interviewed that the latest shooting shows why the city needs a civilian review board, “and we need to fundamentally rethink safety in our city.”

“It certainly does put in stark view what you have been called to do in our community, each and every one of you: to provide oversight, accountability and transparency when it comes to policing in our community,” he said. 

© Brooke LaValley/Columbus Dispatch Shanise Washington talks to the crowd that had gathered on Legion Lane on Columbus’ Southeast Side following a fatal shooting by a city police officer responding to an attempted stabbing call.

Reporters Marc Kovac and Bill Bush contributed to this story.

mferenchik@dispatch.com

@MarkFerenchik 

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus police shooting updates: Aunt says teen girl killed; crowd protests