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Video has emerged in the shooting of Ma’Khia Bryant, 16, who was shot and killed while she was attempting to stab another girl, showing her screaming, “I’m going to stab the f*** out of you, b****,” as she lunged toward the girl before she was shot.
In new video, Makhia Bryant can be heard screaming “I’m gonna stab the fuck out of you, bitch,” while lunging at two unarmed people who were posing no imminent physical threat to her
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) April 22, 2021
The incident with Bryant spawned a multitude of social justice posts ripping into the police officer who shot her. NBA superstar LeBron James posted a photograph on social media of the police officer who allegedly shot and killed her, writing, “YOU’RE NEXT. #ACCOUNTABILITY.” Along with the photograph of the police officer, James included an emoji of an hour glass, signifying that time is running out.
Former President Barack Obama’s top advisor, Valerie Jarrett, also weighed in on the incident. “A Black teenage girl named Ma’Khia Bryant was killed because a police officer immediately decided to shoot her multiple times in order to break up a knife fight. Demand accountability. Fight for justice. #BlackLivesMatter,” she tweeted.
A Black teenage girl named Ma’Khia Bryant was killed because a police officer immediately decided to shoot her multiple times in order to break up a knife fight. Demand accountability. Fight for justice. #BlackLivesMatter.
— Valerie Jarrett (@ValerieJarrett) April 21, 2021
Activist and filmmaker Bree Newsome echoed, “Teenagers have been having fights including fights involving knives for eons. We do not need police to address these situations by showing up to the scene & using a weapon against one of the teenagers. Y’all need help. I mean that sincerely.”
Teenagers have been having fights including fights involving knives for eons. We do not need police to address these situations by showing up to the scene & using a weapon against one of the teenagers. Y’all need help. I mean that sincerely.
— 🔥TURN UP THE HEAT🔥 (@BreeNewsome) April 21, 2021
Rutgers University associate professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Brittney Cooper joined in, too: “A Black girl is dead because the cops brought a gun to a damn knife fight. If you don’t know how to de-escalate teen girls who are fighting, you should not be a police officer. I said what I said. #MakhiaBryant.”
https://twitter.com/ProfessorCrunk/status/1384848106727133184
But others defended the officer. An Ohio criminal justice professor said the shooting, while a tragedy, was a “legally justified” use of lethal force.
Bowling Green State University criminal justice professor Philip Stinson, who specializes in fatal use of force scenarios by law enforcement, told The Columbus Dispatch, “My first impression is that the officer was legally justified in using deadly force.”
“It’s a terribly tragic situation, and my heart goes out to the girl and her family and friends,” he said. “But from looking at the video, it appears to me that a reasonable police officer would have had a reasonable apprehension of an imminent threat of serious bodily injury or death being imposed against an officer or someone else. That’s the legal standard.”
Retired Columbus SWAT officer James Scanlon made a similar argument. “An officer is justified in using deadly force if his life or the life of someone else is at risk,” he said. “Few would argue that there weren’t at least two lives there that were at serious risk.”
The officer shot Bryant “to save the life of someone he doesn’t even know,” Scanlon continued. “It’s a shame that no one has recognized that that officer, in all likelihood, saved one or more lives.”
A neighbor of Bryant’s foster home, Donavon Brinson, who heard the shots fired and reviewed the incident on his security camera, stated that had the officer not acted as he did, more people might have died, as The Columbus Dispatch reported.
“He immediately thought about his security camera on his garage. He watched the footage. He saw the fight, saw the glint of the knife,” the Dispatch reported. “And while what happened is tragic, Brinson said, it all happened so fast that he didn’t see how the officer could have time to have done anything else.”
“He referenced the girl seen in both police body-camera footage and on his own camera footage who was wearing pink who was the second female engaged with Bryant in the scuffle. Brinson said he really thinks more people might have died had police not taken action,” the Dispatch added.