Ohio County, where a black teenage girl was shot dead Tuesday, has one of the highest rates of police fatalities in the US, according to a recent study highlighting law enforcement’s disparate treatment of black Americans.
Ma’Khia Bryant, 16, was shot and murdered by a police officer in Columbus, Franklin County, about 20 minutes before former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of the murder of George Floyd.
Tuesday’s shooting sparked protests at the site of the shooting in Franklin County, which investigators say is the most deadly province in the state for police shootings.
The Ohio Alliance for Innovation in Public Health released an investigation in February this year that found that between January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2020, 38 people were shot and killed by police in Franklin County, which is home to approximately 1.3 million people.
According to the Alliance, an average of 4.81 people per million people were killed in the county – the 18th highest rate of police shootings in America’s 100 most populous counties.
Ma’Khia was shot outside a house in southeastern Columbus at 4:45 PM, according to police. Franklin County Children’s Services, which identified Ma’Khia to the media, said the 16-year-old was in foster care.
Hazel Bryant, who identified herself as Ma’Khia’s aunt from the Columbus Dispatch, said Ma’Khia was living in foster care on the street where she was shot. Ma’Khia had gotten into a fight with someone else in the house, her aunt said.
Police played a 10-second body cam video at a press conference on Tuesday that appeared to see a girl wielding a knife while struggling with another person. A police officer then opens fire and a girl falls to the ground.
Michael Woods, Columbus’s interim police chief, said agents had responded to a 911 call. “The information was that a caller said there were females trying to stab them and put their hands on them,” Woods said.
The officer who shot Ma’Khia has not been named and has been placed on administrative leave.
The Alliance used data from the Washington Post’s shooting database to determine that in Ohio, the number of black people killed by police was 339% higher than the number of white fatalities.
Every year, an average of 6.96 blacks per million are murdered by the police, compared to 1.59 whites.
About 20% of Ohio’s black population lives in Franklin County, but the area accounted for 33% of state police fatalities involving black victims.
Of America’s 100 most populous counties, Bernalillo, in New Mexico, was the deadliest for police killings.
Within the 2015-2020 range studied by the Ohio Alliance, an average of 9.82 people per million per year were murdered by police in the Bernalillo district. Jackson, Montana, had the second-highest rate, with a rate of 8.77 deaths per year. Denver, Colorado, came third, with a percentage of 8.25 people killed by police every year.
More than a hundred protesters gathered in downtown Columbus on Tuesday evening to demonstrate over Ma’Khia’s death, local news channel 10WBNS reported. Protesters gathered outside the Columbus Police Station and chanted “Black Lives Matter” before marching through the center of town.
According to USA Today, about 50 people had previously protested at the scene of the shooting. At the scene, KC Taynor was among those who noted that Ma’Khia’s death was close to Chauvin’s verdict. “We shouldn’t be celebrating,” Taynor said, according to USA Today.
“You know what, you can’t be black in the end.”
Ma’Khia was shot less than five miles from where Andre Hill’s funeral was held earlier this year. Hill, a black man, was shot dead in Franklin County by another Columbus police officer in December. Adam Coy, who is white, has been charged with murder.
Less than three weeks before Hill was murdered, a Franklin sheriff’s deputy shot dead 23-year-old Casey Goodson Jr, a black man, in Columbus. According to the Associated Press, the case remains under federal investigation.