According to Yahoo News
A Columbus police officer shot and killed a Black teenage girl on Tuesday afternoon just as a guilty verdict was being handed down in the Derek Chauvin murder case, a family member said.
The shooting victim has not been officially identified, but was named as 15-year-old Makiyah Bryant by a relative early Tuesday evening.
“She was a good kid. She was loving,” Hazel Bryant, who said the child was her niece, told reporters on the east side of Columbus. “She was 15 years old. She didn’t deserve to die like a dog in the street.”
Bryant said her niece has been living in a foster home on the east side of Columbus where the fatal shooting took place. She said several adult women had come to the foster home and started an altercation with the teenager, who called police and her biological father and grandmother for help. She grabbed a knife to defend herself, Bryant said.
According to Bryant, who said she had been told of the events by Makiyah’s grandmother and father, Makiyah was in front of the house fending off a physical assault when police arrived, and she had already dropped the knife in the yard. But police shot her four times without any warning, she said.
“The police are going to lie. I’m so thankful that someone from the family was actually on the scene,” Bryant said. “The police are going to lie. The police are going to cover up for themselves. They don’t care. At this point, I feel like they’re just out to kill Black people. They’re not here to protect and serve. That isn’t happening. That’s been over a long time ago. They’re not here to protect and serve. They’re here to kill Black folks.”
The Columbus Dispatch reported that police officers were sent to the scene after a 911 caller reported an attempted stabbing, saying a female was trying to stab them.
Her mother, Paula Bryant, told 10 WBNS, “She was a very loving, peaceful little girl. She was an honor-roll student, and Makiyah had a motherly nature about her. She promoted peace.”
A woman identified as Tay Jones wrote on Facebook that she had witnessed the shooting and posted video purportedly from the scene. She said the 15-year-old had a knife “because somebody tried to jump her.” The white police officer who shot her never told her to put down the knife, according to Jones.