COLUMBUS, Ohio (WJW/AP) — A neighbor of Ma’Khia Bryant says, after watching video captured by his security cameras, he thinks more people could have died if police hadn’t acted quickly in the incident.
That’s according to an interview with The Columbus Dispatch, which quoted Donovan Brinson as saying “It was violent and all just happened so fast.”
Bryant, 16, was shot and killed by an officer on the east side of Columbus Tuesday evening.
Police body camera footage showed the teen swinging a knife toward two other girls before the fatal shots were fired.
Brinson told The Columbus Dispatch that he was pulling into his driveway as the incident started. He said he “figured it was just a girl fight.” He said the fight got worse and that, while he was inside, he heard gunshots after police responded.
He then reviewed 26 seconds of video from his cameras, the paper reports. He said it showed the fight and he saw the knife involved. He turned the video over to police.
The 10-second police body camera clip begins with the officer, identified Wednesday as Nicholas Reardon, getting out of his car at the home.
The officer, who was hired by the force in December 2019, is seen taking a few steps toward a group of people in the driveway when Bryant starts swinging a knife wildly at another girl or woman, who falls backward. The officer shouts several times to get down.
Bryant then charges at another girl or woman, who is pinned against a car.
From a few feet away, with people on either side of him, the officer fires four shots, and Bryant slumps to the ground. A black-handled blade similar to a kitchen knife or steak knife lies on the sidewalk next to her.
A man immediately yells at the officer, “You didn’t have to shoot her! She’s just a kid, man!”
The officer responds, “She had a knife. She just went at her.”
Bryant was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead, police said. Police did not say if anyone else was injured.
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