Hundreds of demonstrators assembled at the police headquarters in Columbus, Ohio on Tuesday night after officers responding to an attempted stabbing fatally shot a 16-year-old girl.
The crowd forced their way past police barriers to approach the building, where they chanted the name of Ma’Khia Bryant, who was shot dead hours earlier outside of a home in the city.
Officers with bicycles attempted to push protesters back and threatened to deploy pepper spray.
As protests continued outside the headquarters, city officials released bodycam footage of the fatal incident.
The video shows an officer approach a driveway where a group of young people are standing. Bryant then appears to push or swing at a person, who falls to the ground, before swinging a knife at a girl who is on the hood of a car.
In the clip, the officer then fires what sounds like four shots, striking Bryant, who later died.
“It’s a tragic day in the city of Columbus. It’s a horrible, heartbreaking situation,” Mayor Andrew J. Ginther said, according to The Columbus Dispatch. “We felt transparency in sharing this footage, as incomplete as it is at this time, was critical.”
“Based on this footage, the officer took action to protect another young girl in our community,” the mayor continued. “But a family is grieving tonight. And this young 15-year-old girl will never be coming home.”
Police were initially called to a home on Legion Lane around 3:45 p.m. Tuesday following a report of an attempted stabbing, WSYX reported.
It wasn’t immediately clear who made the 911 call.
After being shot, Bryant was taken to hospital in critical condition and pronounced dead just before 5:30 p.m.
An aunt of Bryant told The Columbus Dispatch that the teen got into an altercation with someone she lives with in a foster home on the block.
The aunt said that Bryant had a knife, but claimed she had dropped it before the officer opened fire, the newspaper reported.