“You Will See Why This Was Justified”

Ma'khai bodycam footage

While the world was waiting to hear the verdict from the George Floyd trial, an officer in Columbus, Ohio, responded to a call. The Columbus Police Department released footage of a shooting showing the moment an officer shot and killed 16-year-old Ma’khia Bryant.

The bodycam footage shows the officer arriving on the scene after receiving a call that a group was fighting with possible weapons. The active fight between several people is shown in one corner of the video. While on the opposite side of the screen, you see the officer raise the gun as the knife comes into the frame. The knife-wielding 16-year-old was then shot while she was attempting to stab the other person in the altercation.

Ma'khai with Knife in her hand

 

In a press conference Tuesday night reported by NBC, the Columbus Police Chief Michael Woods did not name the officer involved in the shooting but did clarify that the officer is not on patrol.

Chief Woods said, “This is still very new and still gathering information that we can gather, but most of that information will be done by BCI (Bureau of Criminal Investigation). We want to be sure that independent review from them, that we stay out of their way, and we provide the information that they request from us.”

Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther also spoke at the press conference saying, “We know, based on this footage, the officer took action to protect another young girl in our community, but a family is grieving tonight that this young [16]-year-old girl will never be coming home.”

The Franklin County Family Services – where Makiyah Bryant was under care as a foster child – said that her death was “a tragic incident.”

Chief Woods told the press that “deadly force can be used to protect yourself or the protection of a third person, so that’s within the policy and that is within the law.”

Brandon Tatum reacts to bodycam of Ma'Khia

Officer Brandon Tatum reacted to the shooting in a viral video, saying, “Here we go again.” Tatum said, “you will find out very quickly why I believe this was justified. These people are standing around; everything seems cool. But there are multiple police officers that have shown up to the scene, not just the cop that got out of the car with the bodycam.”

The chaos in the quick video doesn’t explain the context of the shooting; he says as he points out that multiple officers were already on the scene. “If you look at [the footage] and don’t know the context or don’t see it in slow-mo, you would think, “well, what happened?”, just wait.”

“The police have shown up and got out of the car,” Tatum points out as he asks, “How are y’all fighting in front of the police?” The fight was completely out of control at this point in the slow-mo version of the video, where you can see a man kicking a woman lying on the ground in the head while another woman is also attacking her.

At the same time, in the left corner of the video, two different women – one we know to be Ma’khia Bryant and the other seemingly a victim – a knife is pulled out by Bryant in an attempt to attack the unnamed woman. Tatum exclaims, “She pulled out a knife in front of the cops!”

“Look at what she [Ma’khia Bryant] does with the knife. She is going for the girl’s throat with the knife. She is trying to stab her in the head with this knife, and an officer shot her,” said Brandon Tatum. Officer Tatum believes that this officer-involved shooting was justified “because an officer has an obligation to preserve the life of other people, not just the police officer.”

It’s as simple as that. A woman with a knife was threatening the life of another woman, and this brave officer chose to act. The left will protest and riot regardless of the truth.

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