One of Ma’Khia Bryant’s apparent intended victims was caught on camera reacting to the situation that could have left her stabbed.
The teenage girl, whose name has not been released, was filmed walking away from the scene of the confrontation. (RELATED: Media Ran With Early Reports On The Columbus Shooting Only To Be Wrong)
WATCH:
Please, listen to what the girl who didn’t get stabbed today had to say about the use of lethal force: pic.twitter.com/cjasIXkDgn
— William Bishop (@TVGBadger) April 21, 2021
“She f*cking came at me with a knife,” the girl said. She can be seen in the video wearing a pink jacket and carrying a small dog.
A police officer asked whether she meant that Bryant had come at her with the knife earlier, and she replied, “No, she just did. That’s why the guy — that’s why the police did it. She came after me.”
“With a knife?” the officer asked once more.
“Yeah, so he got her,” she replied.
Neighbors who witnessed the scene also showed support for the police officer who shot Bryant to stop her from attacking — later identified as Columbus police officer Nicholas Reardon.
Donovan Brinson, who lives across the street from the foster home, told The Columbus Dispatch that he had initially just thought it was “a girl fight” until he heard shots fired.
“If the officer hadn’t done what he did, I think we’d have two girls dead. It was violent and all just happened so fast,” Brinson added.
Another neighbor who lives down the street, Ira Graham III, told the Dispatch that he had heard the gunshots and came down the street to find officers giving Bryant CPR.
“I believe in truth and facts. Video doesn’t lie,” Graham said after viewing the body cam footage of the confrontation. “She was in full attack mode. She needed to be stopped at that point. That young lady’s life was at stake.”
Initial media reports of the shooting that took Bryant’s life claimed that she was unarmed and suggested there could be a racial motivation involved.