Columbus Officer Who Killed 16-Year-Old Ma'Khia Bryant Identified

Officials in Columbus, Ohio, have identified the police officer who, on Tuesday afternoon, fatally shot Ma’Khia Bryant, a 16-year-old Black girl.

Michael Woods, the interim police chief of the Columbus Police Department, said at a press conference on Wednesday that Nicholas Reardon, a white officer who joined the department in December 2019, had fired four shots at Ma’Khia, killing her.

According to The Daily Beast, Reardon is a U.S. Air National Guardsman who was once recognized for his expert marksmanship.

Woods said Ma’Khia appeared to have threatened two other girls with a knife before Reardon fired his weapon. The interim chief noted that an officer can use deadly force to protect themselves or another person.

Yet it remained unclear, Woods added, whether Reardon was justified in his use of lethal force. He said the officer had been taken off street duty as the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation conducts an independent probe into the shooting.

Ma’Khia’s relatives and community members have questioned the police department’s characterization of her killing.

In body camera footage of the shooting, an officer identified as Reardon can be seen emerging from his vehicle to encounter a confrontation on a residential street. Ma’Khia appears to lunge at one person, who falls to the ground. She then turns toward a second person and takes a swipe at her, a knife briefly visible in her hand.

Reardon fires his gun at Ma’Khia, who topples to the ground and remains still. Another officer approaches Ma’Khia to render aid. A small knife is visible on the ground next to her body.

Shouts and cries can be heard from witnesses at the scene. One person shouts, “She’s a fucking kid, man!”

Ma’Khia, who her family said was a “sweet” and “loving” honor roll student, died at the hospital shortly before 5:30 p.m. local time. At around the same time, hundreds of miles away in Minneapolis, former police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder and manslaughter in the 2020 death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man.

Columbus police released body camera footage of Ma’Khia’s death on Tuesday night and additional footage on Wednesday. Officials also released the audio of two 911 calls, in which callers had sought police assistance at the address where the shooting occurred.

The first of the 911 callers told the dispatcher that someone was “trying to fight us, trying to stab us” as people shouted in the background. A different caller later phoned in with an emergency at the same address but hung up after saying police had already arrived.

Police said they had yet to identify the two callers, but Ma’Khia’s family members have suggested that at least one of the callers was the teen herself, who was reportedly in foster care at the time of her death. Her family said she called the police for help after girls began fighting outside her home.

“My daughter dispatched Columbus police for protection, not to be a homicide today,” Paula Bryant, who identified herself as Ma’Khia’s mother, told reporters.

Ma’Khia’s other relatives have said that “the body cam doesn’t show the truth of what occurred.”

A woman who identified herself as the girl’s aunt told The Columbus Dispatch that Ma’Khia dropped the knife she was holding before Reardon shot her.

As protesters in Columbus have taken to the streets to demand justice for Ma’Khia, Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther told reporters, “We don’t yet have all of the facts, but we do know that a 16-year-old girl ― a child in this community ― died last night.”

“Did Ma’Khia Bryant need to die yesterday? How did we get here? Some are guilty, but all of us are responsible,” he added.

Ginther had previously defended Reardon’s actions. In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, he said it was “clear the officer took action to protect another young life.”

But community members have challenged this narrative.

“As soon as [Reardon] got out of the car, he had the gun ready to shoot somebody,” Kiara Yakita, founder of Black Liberation Movement Central Ohio, told The Washington Post. “Law enforcement and city officials are rushing to make excuses because she had a knife. Those excuses are not valid to me.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Wednesday that President Joe Biden had been briefed on Ma’Khia’s “tragic” death.

“She was a child,” Psaki said. “And her death came just as America was hopeful of a step forward after the traumatic and exhausting trial of Derek Chauvin and the verdict that was reached.”

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.