Columbus police officer shoot deadly girl with swinging knife

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – Columbus police shot and killed a teenage girl who waved a knife at two other people on Tuesday, according to bodycam footage of the officer firing the shots minutes before the verdict became in the murder of George Floyd. read aloud.

Officials from the Columbus Division of Police showed some of the footage on Tuesday evening, just hours after the shooting took place in a neighborhood on the east side of the city. The decision to release the video quickly was a deviation from protocol, as police face immense public scrutiny following a series of high-profile police killings leading to clashes.

The 10-second clip begins with the officer getting out of his car at a house where the police were sent after someone called saying they were being physically threatened, interim police chief Michael Woods said at the news conference. The officer takes a few steps to a group of people in the driveway when the girl, who was black, starts to swing a knife wildly at another girl or woman, who falls backwards. The officer calls several times to come down.

The girl with the knife then falls on another girl or woman who is pinned against a car.

From three feet away, with people on either side of him, the officer fires four shots and the teenager falls to the ground. A knife with a black handle, similar to a kitchen knife or steak knife, lies next to her on the sidewalk.

A man immediately yells at the officer, “You didn’t have to shoot her! She’s just a kid, man! “

The officer replies, “She had a knife. She just went over to her. “

The officer’s race was not clear.

The girl was taken to a hospital, where she was declared dead, according to the police. It remains unclear whether anyone else was injured.

Police did not identify the girl or her age on Tuesday. One family member said she was 15, while another said she was 16.

The shooting took place minutes before the verdict on George Floyd’s murder was announced. Protesters who peacefully rallied after that verdict to call for police reform and to be held accountable soon turned their attention to the girl’s murder. The crowd of about 100 could be heard singing outside police headquarters as city officials offered condolences to the family and acknowledged that it was so rare to show bodycam footage so shortly after a police shooting.

Woods said state law allows police to use deadly force to protect themselves or others, and investigators will determine whether this shooting was such a case.

Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther mourned the loss of the young victim, but defended the officer’s use of deadly force.

“We know from these images that the officer took action to protect another young girl in our community,” he told reporters.

Meanwhile, outside the briefing, hundreds of protesters pushed through barriers outside police headquarters and approached officers while city officials showed the bodycam video inside. Many chanted, “Say her name!” While others indicated the victim’s age by shouting, “She was just a kid!” Cops with bicycles pushed protesters back and threatened to use pepper spray on the crowd.

The shooting took place about 25 minutes before a judge read the verdict convicting former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin of murder and manslaughter in killing Floyd. It also took place less than 5 miles from Andre Hill’s funeral home, who was murdered in December by another Columbus police officer, was detained earlier this year. The officer in Hill’s case, Adam Coy, a 19-year veteran of the police force, is now on trial for murder and the next hearing is scheduled for April 28.

Less than three weeks before Hill was murdered, a Franklin County deputy sheriff shot 23-year-old Casey Goodson Jr. in Columbus. The case remains under federal investigation.

Columbus police were shot last week a man who was in a hospital emergency room with a gun on him. Officials are continuing an investigation into that shooting.

Kimberly Shepherd, 50, who has lived in the neighborhood where the shooting took place on Tuesday for 17 years, said she knew the teen victim.

“The neighborhood has certainly undergone its changes, but nothing like it,” Shepherd said of the shooting. “This is the worst that has ever happened here and unfortunately it is in the hands of the police.”

Shepherd and her neighbor Jayme Jones, 51, had celebrated Chauvin’s guilty verdict. But things changed quickly, she said.

“We were happy with the verdict. But you couldn’t even enjoy that, ”Shepherd said. “Because you get the one call he owed, I get the next call that this is happening in my area.”

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Farnoush Amiri is a Corpsman for the Associated Press / Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a national nonprofit service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on hidden issues.

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Kryska reported from Hoboken, New Jersey.

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