By Dominic Taylor-
U.S police have shot and killed a young black girl just before Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd.
The shooting on Tuesday afternoon in Columbus, Ohio, occurred after police responded to reports of an attempted stabbing.
A black-handled blade resembling a kitchen knife or steak knife appeared to be lying on the sidewalk next to her immediately after she was shot and fell, the report said.
The death came about 25 minutes before a judge in Minneapolis read out guilty verdicts for former police officer Derek Chauvin on three charges.
The caller had said females were trying to stab them and put their hands on them, according to Columbus interim police chief Michael Woods.
No further details were gathered from the caller who hung up the phone, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
It is unclear what then led to police shooting the girl but she was taken to hospital, where she was pronounced dead.”As I said earlier, the Bureau of Criminal Investigation is conducting the criminal investigation into this incident.
“At the conclusion of that investigation, the divisional police will conduct an administrative review of the actions of this officer and all officers at the scene.”
Franklin County Children’s Services confirmed the teenager as Ma’Khia Bryant and that she was in foster care, according to The Dispatch.
Columbus mayor Andrew Ginther said that police had body-worn cameras at the scene, adding: “We know, based on this footage, the officer took action to protect another young girl in our community.
“But a family is grieving tonight and this young 15-year-old girl will never be coming home.”
These related to the death of George Floyd, a black man who died during an arrest in May last year, after Chauvin knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes.
Kimberly Shepherd, 50, has lived in the Columbus neighbourhood for 17 years, and said she knew the victim.
She and her neighbour Jayme Jones, 51, had celebrated the guilty verdict of Chauvin but things changed quickly.
“We were happy about the verdict, but you couldn’t even enjoy that,” Ms Shepherd said.
“Because as you’re getting one phone call that he was guilty, I’m getting the next phone call that this is happening in my neighbourhood.”
When one of the officers asked for an explanation, one girl – Ma’Khia – pushed another to the ground and then another against a car. After shouting for her to get down and failing to comply, the officer then shot Ma’Khia four times.
In a press conference held yesterday, April 21, Interim Columbus Police Chief Michael Woods showed the officer’s slowed-down bodycam footage, which shows a knife visible in Ma’Khia’s hand. It was after the officer in question shouted at her to ‘get down’ several times that he opened fire four times.
After the girl slumps to the ground, screams can be heard and people then begin shouting, with one man who was involved in the disturbance saying, ‘She’s a fu*king kid, man!’
The girl’s aunt, Hazel Bryant, arrived on the scene shortly afterwards and explained that it was Ma’Khia who had phoned the police for help after being threatened by someone she lived with in her foster home.
She reportedly also called her father and grandmother for help, and only grabbed the knife as a means of self-defence, according to BuzzFeed News.
‘She was a good kid, she was loving,’ Bryant said. ‘Yeah, she had issues but that’s OK. All of us go through sh*t… She didn’t deserve to die like a dog in the street.’
In the video, one officer can be seen tending to the victim, before he then tries to grab her feet. ‘She came at her with a knife,’ he says to a colleague, as the video stops.
Ohio’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation is now undertaking a criminal investigation into the incident, and once complete, Woods said his department will review the officers’ actions.