Ma’Khia Bryant’s Neighbor Says Cop Had No Choice But to Fire

Ma’Khia Bryant’s Neighbor Says Cop Had No Choice But to Fire

As details continue to emerge in the unfortunate shooting death of Ma’Khia Bryant, a neighbor, who has provided security camera footage to authorities, says that the officer in question had “no choice” but to fire on the teen, who was about to plunge a knife into another girl in the melee.

The neighbor, Donovan Brinson, said he saw the chaotic events that led to the fatal incident — and that video from his security camera led him to believe that the cop had no choice but to fire.

Brinson was pulling into his driveway as the fight was going on, “They were calling each other the B-word, so I figured it was just a girl fight,” he told the Ohio paper the Columbus Dispatch.

He said the yelling escalated moments later when he took his dog out back, so he went back into his home. And when police arrived, he said he heard four shots as his wife, Rachel, dove to the floor.

Brinson said he looked out the window of his laundry room and saw the mortally wounded Ma’Khia Bryant lying on the ground. It was then that he thought to check the footage that might have been recorded by his security camera, which did face the direction of the chaotic brawl. As he reviewed the shocking footage, which had indeed captured the fight, he said he could clearly see the glint of a knife.

“It was violent, and all just happened so fast,” Brinson told the Dispatch, citing a girl dressed in pink who was the second female involved in the altercation with Bryant.

Brinson, who turned his video over to police, said he believed that had police not taken immediate action, the girls in pink would have definitely been stabbed by Bryant and likely killed.

Brinson’s 26-second video — shot from much farther away than the footage released by police — shows as many as seven people either in front of Bryant’s foster home or emerging from inside, as a patrol car rolls up, followed by a police SUV.

The foster mom told the newspaper she was at work when the incident happened and declined further comment.

Another neighbor, Ira Graham III, a photographer and videographer who was working at home, said he heard the gunshots Tuesday afternoon. “I saw a bunch of cop cars coming down the street,” he told the Dispatch, adding that he saw cops performing CPR on Bryant and that he later saw the police video of Bryant’s actions.

“I believe in truth and facts. Video doesn’t lie,” he said. “She was in full attack mode.”

The girl [Bryant] “was literally aiming a knife at this young lady,” Graham said of the female in pink. “She needed to be stopped at that point. That young lady’s life was at stake.”

The officer, who has been placed on paid leave, has since been identified as Nicholas Reardon, a US Air National Guardsman who received an expert marksman badge.

Trouble in the Home Long Before the Shooting

Meanwhile, the Associated Press is reporting that the younger sister of Ma’Khia Bryant called 911 a few weeks before Bryant’s fatal shooting by Officer Reardon, saying the girls had been in a fight with each other and she wanted to leave their foster home.

“I don’t want to be here no more,” the girl told a police dispatcher, adding that she’d been in the home more than a year.

The 911 call was one of more than a dozen placed from the Columbus foster home since 2017, most by Angela Moore — the home’s foster mother — seeking help with foster girls who had left without permission or didn’t return after being out, according to documents and 911 calls obtained by The Associated Press.

Bryant had only been in the home since February, but Michelle Martin, attorney for the Bryant family, said she had been in the foster care system for too long. Martin told the Associated Press, “The whole world has placed Ma’Khia on trial based on this one incident where they see her swinging a knife. But why aren’t we looking further and figuring out who were those girls? How did they get there? How did this develop so quickly?”

6 thoughts on “Ma’Khia Bryant’s Neighbor Says Cop Had No Choice But to Fire

  1. I think that all this hype about the murder of Ma’Khia Bryant by the police was inflated by the plutocrats specifically so that the police did not interfere in African American deadly “showdowns” and did not prevent African Americans from destroying each other. Just like it is done in the democratic cities of Chicago and New York.

  2. I thank this neighbor for his HONESTY of which a lot, but not most, of black folks LACK – as well as MOST so-called democrat politicians……..!!!!!!!!!!

  3. If that policeman had not shot Ma’Khia Bryant the girl in pink would have been gutted, and who knows who else she might have gone after. It sure doesn’t surprise me why Ma’Khia was in a foster home, that so called mother was something else.

  4. it is so easy to sit back and say I woulda, they shoulda. when you’re in the heat of it, you do what instinct tells you to do. the policeman did exactly what anyone in that position should have done to save another life. the girl who was shot clearly had issues, and her “mother” had many more. why was she in foster care? how long? why didn’t the “mother” take better care of this girl? it is a shame that she is dead, but like the other victims of police shootings, she caused it herself. why can’t people just rationalize, rather than grab a knife or gun to solve their problems.???? I realize that a knife fight, in the words of the black caucus leader “happens all the time in schools, and teachers break them up on a daily basis”, is to them, commonplace. but in all societies, we differ on the methods we use to de-escalate things. you dont see certain ethnic groups rely on knives and guns. this is because they are not taught how to handle their emotions. I blame the “gangsta” era for all this. the rap musicians glamorize this lifestyle also. people of all races need to learn how to talk out their differences, rather than use prehistoric means to settle them. it is too easy to knife or shoot someone, and gives “street cred” to some.

  5. Once again we see logic and common sense tossed aside to further a political agenda. It’s very sad to see a sixteen year old lose their life. Much too young to die. That being said what sort of life would this girl have growing up with violence as her answer to any problem? I contend not much. If this hadn’t happened now it’s more than likely it would have happened somewhere down the road. I don’t like to speak ill of the deceased but in fact she is one hundred percent responsible for her own demise as are most of these deaths via police shootings etc. Nearly every single one of us has dealt with police contact either by dispute or just being pulled over for a traffic violation. The vast majority of us do so without someone being killed. In nearly every single incident where someone dies at the hands of the police there’s a common factor that creates this situation. They don’t listen. They refuse to cooperate. They ignore authority. They run they fight they ignore the commands of officers who all carry guns and are trained in conflict resolution. We all too often forget that these police officers are human beings who only wish to return home safely to their families and loved ones. They see the most despicable behaviors known to humanity on a daily basis and to think that they are not affected by dealing with drug dealers rapists murderers and thieves is delusional at best. When the media and politicians push the agenda for their own personal gain they only serve to embolden criminals and in the end are creating an environment in which more people are going to be hurt or killed. It’s a very different scenario when watching television reporters screaming racism at every turn than in the real world where reality takes over. Split second decisions are the reality of dealing with violent criminals. Officers don’t have the benefit of camera footage when faced with a non-compliant criminal. They ask and expect compliance when dealing with the public. They aren’t the judge or the jury. They are called on to enforce the laws we all must obey. We have a trial system that gives each and every one of us our opportunity to tell our side to. Simply put, if you don’t want to get shot by a cop just remain calm and cooperate. It’s not rocket science. Common sense tells you not to fight with armed people with badges. Nearly every single time we read of another young black person being killed in an altercation with police they are committing a crime. So when we hear from the families the lawyers the politicians the muckrakers they claim the individual didn’t deserve to die for their crimes but in fact that’s not why they died. Had they cooperated and gone to court as most normal thinking human beings do they would surely still be alive. They made the choice and therefore suffered the consequences. Who do they call when they are victimized? Of course they call the very people the demonize every single day. No doubt there are bad cops. It only serves to murk the waters when they scream racism on every single case of criminals being shot by police. How can we know when it’s justified if every time a person of color screams racism during their particular experience? We would have to believe that every cop gets up out of bed and says ,I’m going to harass and perhaps kill a black person today”. That’s ludicrous and if in fact one or more actually says that they are seriously mentally ill. That certainly doesn’t indicate that all police are racist including those of the black persuasion. The trouble clearly lies in the violent nature of today’s youth. Unfortunately it appears more pervasive in black youth. I can only guess at the reasons why but it’s very clear this happens more in the black community than in general. This needs to be addressed or we are going to continue to see young blacks dying of and committing violence against each other and in confrontation with police. I live adjacent to St Louis and every day I see more black youth shootings and killings with no end in sight. The police are afraid to respond in fear of being labeled a racist and losing their jobs or worse yet being prosecuted for doing their jobs. This sort of negative propaganda will only serve to perpetuate a very troubling problem that appears to be growing. The solution isn’t to call all police racist. We need to get to the root of gun violence in the black community or we are going to see more and more young people die.

  6. One of the problems is you only see POC in the BIAS FAKE NEWS MEDIA . They NEVER tell you of any police officers, white, asian , indian and so on…. that get killed or murdered EVERY DAY!!!! LOOK AT THE STATISTICS!!!!!!!!!!!!

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