Police fatally shoot teenage girl swinging knife, body-camera footage shows
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Police here shot and killed a teenage girl who swung at two other people with a knife Tuesday, according to body-camera footage from the officer who fired the shots just minutes before the verdict was read in Derek Chauvin’s trial for the killing of George Floyd.
Officials with the Columbus Division of Police showed a segment of the footage Tuesday night, just hours after the shooting took place in a neighborhood on the city’s east side. The decision to swiftly release the video was a departure from protocol as the force faces immense scrutiny from the public following a series of high-profile police killings that have led to clashes.
The 10-second clip begins with the officer getting out of his car at a house where police had been dispatched after someone called 911 saying he or she was being physically threatened, interim Police Chief Michael Woods said at the news conference. The officer takes a few steps toward a group of people in the driveway when the girl, who was Black, starts swinging a knife wildly at another girl or woman, who falls backward. The officer shouts several times to get down.
The girl with the knife then charges at another girl or woman, who is pinned against a car.
From a few feet away, with people on either side of him, the officer fires four shots, and the teen slumps to the ground. A black-handled blade similar to a kitchen knife or steak knife lies on the sidewalk next to her.
A man immediately yells at the officer, “You didn’t have to shoot her! She’s just a kid, man!”
The landmark case has riveted a nation wrestling with the issues of police brutality and racial injustice it raised.
The officer responds, “She had a knife. She just went at her.”
The race of the officer wasn’t clear.
The girl was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead, police said. It remains unclear if anyone else was injured.
Police did not identify the girl or her age Tuesday. One family member said she was 15; another said she was 16.
The shooting happened minutes before the verdict in the Chauvin trial was announced in Minneapolis. Protesters in Columbus who had gathered peacefully after that verdict to call for police reform and accountability quickly shifted their focus to the killing of the girl. The crowd of about 100 could be heard chanting outside police headquarters as city officials offered their condolences to the family and acknowledged the rarity of showing body-camera footage so soon after a police shooting.
Woods said state law allows police to use deadly force to protect themselves or others, and investigators will determine whether this shooting was such an instance.
Former Police Officer Derek Chauvin’s conviction for murdering George Floyd has reenergized President Biden and Washington lawmakers aiming for reform.
Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther mourned the loss of the young victim but defended the officer’s use of deadly force.
“We know based on this footage the officer took action to protect another young girl in our community,” he told reporters.
Meanwhile, outside the briefing, hundreds of protesters pushed past barriers outside police headquarters and approached officers as city officials were showing the video inside. Many chanted, “Say her name!” Others yelled, “She was just a kid!” Officers with bicycles pushed protesters back and threatened to deploy pepper spray on the crowd.
The shooting took place less than five miles from where the funeral for Andre Hill, who was killed by a Columbus police officer in December, was held earlier this year. The officer in Hill’s case, Adam Coy, a 19-year veteran of the force, is now facing trial for murder; the next hearing is scheduled for April 28.
Less than three weeks before Hill was killed, a Franklin County sheriff’s deputy fatally shot 23-year-old Casey Goodson Jr. in Columbus. The case remains under federal investigation.
Last week, Columbus police shot and killed a man who had a gun in a hospital emergency room. Officials are continuing an investigation into that shooting.
Kimberly Shepherd, 50, who has lived for 17 years in the neighborhood where Tuesday’s shooting took place, said she knew the teenager killed by police.
“The neighborhood has definitely went through its changes, but nothing like this,” Shepherd said. “This is the worst thing that has ever happened out here, and unfortunately it is at the hands of police.”
Shepherd and her neighbor Jayme Jones, 51, had celebrated the guilty verdict of Chauvin. But things changed quickly, she said.
“We were happy about the verdict. But you couldn’t even enjoy that,” 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 neighborhood.”
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