“Did Ma’Khia Bryant need to die yesterday?” Columbus, Ohio, mayor Andrew Ginther, who is white, asked about the police shooting on April 21, 2021, of a black teenager about to stab another teen with a knife. Both the teens were black girls. The cop who shot Bryant 4 times is white.
Ginther said “state investigators will determine ‘if the officer involved was wrong, and if he was, we will hold him accountable.'” (Read CNN story on April 22, 2021, here.) Police have released bodycam video (below’ graphic images) of Bryant attacking the girl, after pushing down another girl, then being shot in the back several times and falling to the pavement, where officers immediately began rendering aid, to no avail
The killing of Bryant is sparking controversy and protests because it’s another police killing of a black person and the victim was 16 years old. On the surface, it appears justified; Bryant pushed the other girl against a car, her arm was cocked, the knife was pointed at the other girl’s ribcage, and Bryant appeared poised to strike. This morning, the U.K.-based tabloid Daily Mail, which often editorializes in stories, said this:
“Ma’Khia Bryant’s military veteran neighbor has said his home security camera footage proves Columbus Police Officer Nicholas Reardon had no choice but to shoot the black 16-year-old because more people could have been killed if he hadn’t acted. Donavon Brinson told Fox News Thursday morning he believes Bryant could have fatally stabbed the young woman she was seen lunging at with a knife if the cop hadn’t opened fire.”
Brinson, like Bryant and the girls she attacked, is black. (Read that story here.)
So the Daily Mail has decided the cop had “no choice,” but newspapers don’t make that decision, the inquest does. The facts aren’t in dispute; what Bryant did that got her shot is clear from the various videos and witness accounts. But was it necessary to kill her? Despite the violence she was committing, and the danger she posed to others, could this troubled girl’s life have been spared?
I have these questions: Could the officer, instead of shooting her, have rushed her, grabbed her arm holding the knife, and wrestled her away from the other girl? And if not, if it was necessary to shoot her to save the other girl, why shoot her four times? Would one shot have stopped her, and given her more of a chance to survive? Another thing to think about here is the risk of bullets — especially that many bullets — hitting the other girl and possibly one or more of the many bystanders milling about in the scene.
This raises the question of whether cops in general are too trigger-happy, too quick to use deadly force when there might be other alternatives, because they’re trained that way. When Bryant moved to stab the other girl, the officer reflexively shot her, and that’s the point — his instinct was to use his gun.
This at least deserves a hard look, and this case may serve as a vehicle to examine that question, not for the purpose of judging or second-guessing the cop who killed Bryant, but as a means to think about police training and practices with a view to minimizing use of deadly force and saving lives that possibly could be spared.
Related story: Supreme Court makes it easier for states to sentence teen killers to life without parole. See story here.