Ohio cop who fatally shot Ma’Khia Bryant not charged with a crime
The Ohio police officer who shot and killed Ma’Khia Bryant will not be charged with a crime.
A grand jury decided Friday not to charge Columbus cop Nicholas Reardon, local CBS affiliate WBNS reported.
Bryant, a 16-year-old Black girl, appeared to be attacking a young woman with a knife when Reardon opened fire on April 20, 2021. Body-camera video captured the shooting.
Reardon’s killing of Bryant drew extra attention because it happened minutes before Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd.
Grand juries do not have to explain their decision-making processes. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, whose office investigated the shooting, released all files connected to the investigation.
Reardon was the first officer to arrive on the scene after cops were called to a domestic disturbance outside a foster home in Ohio’s capital city.
Almost immediately upon his arrival, Bryant is seen pushing a young woman to the ground and then turning and moving toward another young woman with a knife in her right hand. Bryant appears to raise the knife before Reardon shoots her four times at close range in less than one second.
Ma’Khia’s younger sister, Ja’Niah Bryant, said she was the one who called 911 that day because “grown girls (are) over here trying to fight us, trying to stab us.”
Ja’Niah later said in a “Good Morning America” interview that a young woman who used to live in the foster home had arrived and started a confrontation. She said Ma’Khia was sticking up for her.
“She was being a bigger sister,” Ja’Niah told “GMA.” “She was trying to protect herself.”
