Police Kill 16-Year-Old Girl In Columbus: Was It An Appropriate Use Of Force?

Protests erupted Tuesday night in Columbus, Ohio after a teenage girl was shot and killed by police. The incident reportedly happened in front of the home where she lived with a foster family. The girl’s aunt tells the Columbus Dispatch her niece “got into an altercation with someone else at the home.”

Police, who say they were responded to a call involving an attempted stabbing, quickly released body camera video of the incident. It appears to show police arriving at the scene as the girl is swinging a knife at another girl. The AP explains what happened next:

The officer shouts several times to get down.

The girl with the knife 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 the teen slumps to the ground. A black-handled blade similar to a kitchen knife or steak knife lies on the sidewalk next to her.

Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther said, “We know based on this footage the officer took action to protect another young girl in our community.”

He later wrote, “It’s a tragic day in the city of Columbus. It’s a horrible, heartbreaking situation. Sharing the body worn camera footage — while incomplete — was critical. We will share more footage as it becomes available.”

Whether the use of force was justified is up for debate and will be investigated. Either way, this shooting felt especially raw for the community as it came just about a half-hour after the verdict was read in the Derek Chauvin case.

The officer who shot Bryant is off patrol pending the results of the investigation.

Watch more from the NBC affiliate in Columbus above.