Ohio police fatally shoot teen girl after call about knife attack

A Columbus, Ohio, police officer fatally shot a teen girl Tuesday afternoon while responding to a call about someone armed with a knife, officials said.

Portions of officer body-camera footage shown by police hours after the incident appeared to show the girl attempting to stab another female just before the gunfire.

After the shooting, there appears to be a knife on the ground by the person who was shot.

Police said the video shows someone trying to stab one person on the ground and a second person.

City officials called the shooting a tragedy and urged calm and patience.

Ma’Khia Bryant, a 16-year-old in the foster system, was fatally shot, Franklin County Children Services said Tuesday night.

Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther described the shooting as a “horrible, heartbreaking situation.”

“We know, based on this footage, the officer took action to protect another young girl in our community. But a family is grieving tonight,” he said.

The shooting happened just before the nation learned of the jury’s verdict against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who was found guilty of murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd.

“As we breathed a collective sigh of relief today, a community in Columbus felt the sting of another police shooting,” Ben Crump, the Floyd family’s attorney, tweeted Tuesday evening. “… Another child lost! Another hashtag.”

Image: The scene of a police shooting in Columbus (Gaelen Morse / Reuters)

Columbus Interim Police Chief Michael Woods said police were dispatched around 4:30 p.m. after “a caller said females were there trying to stab them and put their hands on them.”

Body-camera video appears to show a fight when the officer arrives. Two women or girls are in a confrontation, and one falls to the ground in front of the officer.

The girl who was later shot appears to move toward another person near a car, and the officer appears to repeat, “get down” before firing four times.

A person, apparently the officer who fired, says the girl went “at her.”

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The video appears to show that officer later tell another officer who is attending to the shot girl, “she came at her with a knife.”

Woods said it was unusual to release police body-camera video so soon, but police wanted to be transparent about the incident and provide what answers it could. A public records process is underway to release the full video, he said.

The Bureau of Criminal Investigation is conducting an investigation into the shooting, and Woods said the information released Tuesday night was based on police records and did not include any interviews with officers or witnesses.

“The death … is devastating,” Columbus Public Safety Director Ned Pettus said in a statement. “She could be my grandchild. My heart breaks for her family tonight. No matter what the circumstances, they are in agony, and they are in my prayers.”

“They deserve answers. Our city deserves answers. I want answers. But fast answers cannot come at the cost of complete accurate answers,” Pettus said.

The officer, who has not been publicly identified, will be taken off street duty, Woods said.

Shortly after the shooting, a crowd gathered to protest near the home where the shooting occurred, The Columbus Dispatch reported.

Tensions were already high in Columbus after the high-profile shootings of Casey Goodson and Andre Hill.

Goodson, 23, was fatally shot as he was walking into his grandmother’s home in December by a Franklin County sheriff’s deputy. A deputy working with a U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force “reported witnessing a man with a gun” and fired at Goodson after a “verbal exchange,” Columbus police said at the time.

Goodson was licensed to carry a concealed firearm and was not the person being sought by authorities, police said. A preliminary autopsy showed that he was killed after multiple gunshot wounds to the torso.

Hill, 47, was shot and killed by Columbus police just days before Christmas. He was a guest at the home where he was shot and had not committed a crime. Both officers who interacted with Hill failed to activate their body-worn cameras until immediately after the shooting, a violation of department protocol. Body camera footage showed that officers did not provide aid to Hill for several minutes after he was shot four times. Officer Adam Coy was fired days later and indicted in February on charges related to the fatal shooting.

Amid the controversies, Columbus Police Division Chief Thomas Quinlan stepped down in January after a brief one-year tenure. Quinlan was also criticized for his handling of protesters who demonstrated against racial injustice following the death of Floyd. More than 14,000 people signed a petition calling for his resignation, which said that Quinlan directed officers to use tear gas and mace on protesters.