Threatening Safety, Ohio Police Shoot Dead Black Teenage Girl

Shooting illustration. (Pixabay)

JAKARTA - Police officers in Columbus, Ohio, United States shot dead a black teenage girl, Tuesday, April 20 evening local time.

Authorities said the girl hit two people with a knife, as seen in police video footage of the incident.

In his remarks hours after the shooting, which included releasing a video from a police body camera, Columbus' interim police chief Michael Woods said officers involved were responding to a 911 emergency call from someone who reported an attempted stabbing at a house on the southeast side of the city.

Arriving at the scene, the police found the black teenage girl brandishing a knife, attacking a woman who fell backward, then working on a second woman, as shown in the video footage. Everything happened in the front yard of the house.

Slow-motion video footage showed the second victim stumbling back toward a parked car in the driveway as a knife-wielding teenager raised a gun as if to stab him and an officer opened fire.

The teenager immediately collapsed into a parked car and onto the ground, and a gun, which appeared to be a kitchen knife, was seen lying on the sidewalk nearby as an officer crouched by his side to provide medical assistance.

Authorities described the teenager who was shot dead as a 15-year-old girl. Family members have identified him as Makiyah Bryant, aged 16.

The police chief said the video, which he said showed the murdered teenager trying to stab the two women, was released to the public hours after the incident for "transparency" purposes.

The officer who opened the shot was not identified but was shown from the video as white. The police chief said the officer would be temporarily closed for investigation purposes.

This incident immediately sparked protests on the city's main streets, after sundown. Protesters gathered at the scene of the shooting.

Woods said the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) had started an investigation into the case. Meanwhile, the City's Public Security Director, Ned Pettus, Jr., called on all parties to exercise restraint, with the investigation continuing and the facts exposed in what he described as the 'devastating' loss of life.

"A quick answer cannot sacrifice an accurate answer", Pettus said at a press conference with the police chief and mayor as reported by Reuters, Wednesday, April 21.

"BCI will conduct a fully independent investigation, which will be published. If there are officials who violate policies or laws if any, they will be held accountable", he continued.

Separately, Mayor Andrew Ginther said, from a preliminary review of the footage, officers who opened fire 'took action to protect another young girl.

"But another young girl is still not home tonight. I ask everyone to pray for peace. Tonight, we pray for this family, we pray for this city, and we pray for our neighbors", he said.

To note, a woman identified on the Columbia Dispatch account as the aunt of the murdered girl, Hazel Bryant, told the newspaper the teenager lived in an orphanage and was involved in an argument with someone at the residence.