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The family of an armed 16-year-old black girl fatally shot this week by a white police officer in Columbus, Ohio, claims the teen was acting in self-defense when law enforcement officials arrived on the scene.
They claim Ma'Khia Bryant was armed with a knife because she was being attacked by several women who confronted her in her foster home.
However, newly released footage captured by a neighbor’s security camera undercuts the family's version of events.
The new video, which supplements footage captured by a responding police officer’s body camera, shows Ma'Khia Bryant instigating a physical altercation outside her foster home even as a law enforcement official attempts to defuse the situation. The footage shows Bryant knocking one person to the ground while apparently shouting, “I'm going to stab the f--- out of you, b----.”
Bryant then turns around and attempts to stab an unarmed woman. That’s when a police officer intervenes, shooting the teen four times and killing her.
The new tape raises questions about what the Bryant family claims happened that day.
On Tuesday, before the Columbus Division of Police released bodycam footage of the shooting incident, family members claimed Bryant was just protecting herself when the police responded to a 911 call in which a frantic woman claimed, "These grown girls over here trying to fight us, trying to stab us!” Some family members also suggested responding officers intentionally targeted the teen because she was black.
Hazel Bryant, who says she is the girl’s aunt, told reporters Tuesday the teen was “fending off a physical assault" by the time the police got there.
We know this isn’t true based on the neighbor’s security footage.
“The police are going to lie,” said Hazel Bryant, who wasn’t present herself for the incident but claims she heard about it later from the teen’s grandmother and father. “I’m so thankful that someone from the family was actually on the scene.”
If someone is lying, it sure doesn’t appear to be the police.
Hazel Bryant also said Ma'Khia grabbed a knife to defend herself from the women who showed up at her home.
“The police are going to lie,” the alleged aunt told reporters. “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 victim’s great-grandmother, Ila, suggested the police simply wanted to kill the girl.
“It looks to me like that’s what the police wanted to do, to kill her. I’m just trying to figure out why,” she told the Daily Beast.
Elsewhere, the victim’s biological mother, Paula Bryant, told a local news station her daughter “was a very loving, peaceful little girl. She was an honor-roll student, and Ma’khia had a motherly nature about her. She promoted peace.”
This may very well be true. Ma'Khia Bryant may have been a lover of peace. She may have even grabbed a knife to defend herself before the police showed up on the scene.
But the claim she was simply acting in self-defense when law enforcement officials arrived clearly doesn’t appear to be true, based on the latest available footage of the incident.