LeBron James: ‘I’m So Damn Tired of Seeing Black People Killed by Police’

Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press

LeBron James is continuing to speak out against police violence toward the Black community after Columbus, Ohio officer Nicholas Reardon shot and killed 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant on Tuesday.

In a series of tweets, James expressed the need for more accountability while pointing to the systemic nature of police killing Black people across the country. This came after James tweeted and then deleted an image of Reardon with the caption “YOU’RE NEXT,” followed by an hourglass emoji and “#ACCOUNTABILITY.”

The tweet received criticism for potentially invoking violence toward police, which James addressed:

James had previously tweeted “ACCOUNTABILITY” following the conviction of former Minnesota officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd.

Bryant was killed around the same time the jury in Minnesota returned three guilty verdicts to Chauvin for second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

Police body-camera footage from Bryant’s killing shows a physical altercation between three individuals with an individual identified as Bryant holding a knife. Reardon shot four times at Bryant. She was pronounced dead at a local hospital shortly after.

“You cannot get over the fact that you have a teenager who’s dead and that’s a horrible, horrible tragedy,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said Wednesday. “We have to look at the facts.”

The officers were responding to a report of an attempted stabbing on the southeast side of town.

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is currently investigating the killing.