COLUMBUS – The Columbus police officer who on Tuesday shot 16-year-old Ma’khia Bryant in a chaotic encounter with a knife has been identified by authorities as Nicholas Reardon, who has been with the police for less than two years.
I understand the outrage and emotion surrounding this incident. A teenage girl is dead, and she is dead at the hands of a police officer. That is a terrible tragedy under any circumstances, ”said Columbus Safety Director Ned Pettus Jr. during a press conference on Wednesday, where authorities also released several new body camera videos of the incident and the first emergency calls.
“But the video shows that there is more to it. It requires that we pause, take a close look at the sequence of events. And while it is not easy, wait for the facts as determined by an independent investigation, ”he added.
Police said the incident began around 4:32 PM on Tuesday when officers received two 911 calls about an attempted stabbing. On the first call, a woman’s voice can be heard giving the dispatcher an address and saying that people here were “trying to fight us, trying to stab us, trying to get our grandmother.” Shouts can be heard in the background.
“We need a policeman here now,” they hear the person say. “We need a crisis officer here now.” At the second call, a dispatcher tells the caller that the police are on their way.
It was unclear whether the caller was Bryant, an aunt told reporters Tuesday night.
In the body cam footage released hours after the incident and replayed Wednesday, Bryant can be seen with a knife running to another girl. “Crouch! Crouch!” hears an officer shout – before firing four shots at Bryant as she appears to be swinging the knife. Bryant is then seen on the ground while a man can be heard shouting, “She’s just a damn child, man!”
The officers took care of Bryant and called for a doctor, authorities said. She was transported to a nearby hospital, Mount Carmel East, but died of her injuries. The incident took place just minutes before former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of the murder of George Floyd for kneeling on the unarmed black for nine minutes during an arrest in May 2020.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is now examining the Columbus shooting and reviewing Reardon’s use of deadly force. In one video, the officer can be heard saying, “He came up to her with a knife.”
Pettus Jr. said investigators do not yet know who called the police or what would have happened if Reardon, who was hired in December 2019, did not discharge his weapon. Columbus Interim Police Chief Mike Woods added that Reardon may not have had “coverage, distance, and time” to use a Taser.
In short, did Ma’khia Bryant have to die yesterday? How did we get here? This is a failure of part of our community. Some are guilty, but we are all responsible, ”Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther said Wednesday.
The first body cam video was released Tuesday night after Bryant’s family members spoke to reporters and accused authorities of murdering a girl who was just trying to defend herself. Donnie Bryant, one of the teen’s cousins, told The Daily Beast that the family is “absolutely shocked” by the footage of Tuesday’s shooting and wants “justice”.
The video is “very disturbing. As a former councilor, I know firsthand that de-escalating tactics can be used in this situation. You don’t have to reach for your gun to kill a 16-year-old,” said Bryant.
Bryant described the teen as a “bubbly” girl who “had a sweet soul and loved her mother very much,” said Bryant that the family is struggling to figure out how to proceed. “I don’t think there are any words for what is happening at the moment. We want to know what that officer thought. What’s really going on with the Columbus police, ”he said.
“You’ve heard about the sigh of relief with the George Floyd case. Well, not here in Columbus, Ohio, ”he added.
The teen’s neighbors were also shocked by the shooting. Charles Williams, a 63-year-old neighbor, told The Daily Beast that when he arrived at the scene, officers were still hanging out after Bryant’s body was taken away.
“Neighbors started to gather and sing, ‘Black lives matter,’” Williams said. The officers responded by chanting, ‘Blue lives matter.’ ”
Police have not yet responded to an overnight video showing a police officer shouting ‘blue lives matter’ to a group of upset residents.
Williams, who is a staff pastor at a local church, added that the video of Bryant’s shooting clearly shows that the officer did not warn the teen before firing. “This girl didn’t have to die,” he said. “The officer, after he shot her, they (other policemen) took him away.”
Another neighbor, 23-year-old Tammy Taylor, also believes the officer could have used other means to restrain the teen.
“His taser was in a more accessible place than his gun,” Taylor, who arrived on the scene shortly after the teenager was shot, told The Daily Beast. “He could have ordered her.”
She said when she arrived on the scene shortly after the teenager was shot, “all I saw was her on the ground.”