While not entirely surprising to those who can fog a mirror, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki’s response to the police shooting of a knife-wielding black teen in Columbus suggests either she did not view the video of the event, or The White House could not give two f**ks about facts when there’s racial division and anti-cop hatred narratives to sow.
Specifically, Psaki called the fatal police shooting of the teenage girl, “tragic” and said that President Biden has been briefed on the matter.
“The killing of 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant by Columbus police is tragic. She was a child. We are thinking of her friends and family and the communities that are grieving her loss,” Psaki said at a briefing when asked whether Biden had been briefed on the shooting, replying in the affirmative.
Then Psaki piled on, noting that Ma’Khia’s death came amid a moment of hope for progress in fighting racism in policing:
“We know that police violence disproportionately impacts Black and Latino communities and that Black women and girls, like Black men and boys, experience higher rates of police violence. We also know that there are particular vulnerabilities that children in foster care like Ma’Khia face.”
Psaki says Biden has been briefed on the deadly police shooting of 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant in Columbus, Ohio, which happened minutes before the Chauvin verdict was announced
She says the shooting is "a tragedy" that happened "just as America was hopeful of a step forward" pic.twitter.com/MTZ9EcqObt
— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 21, 2021
Even Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther (a Democrat) understood the context, saying at a news conference:
“We know, based on this footage, the officer took action to protect another young girl in our community. But a family is grieving tonight.”
Indeed they are, but the family of girl who was about to be killed by the “peaceful” teen who was shot by the police are also likely extremely thankful for law enforcement’s swift action to save their daughter’s life.
Yesterday’s guilty verdicts in the George Floyd murder case will almost certainly send former Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin to prison for the rest of his life once the sentence is finally handed down next month. But already more police shootings are capturing the nation’s attention.
Roughly one week after the Civilian Office of Police Accountability of Chicago released body camera footage depicting the shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo, sparking national outrage, footage of yet another police shooting of a teenager has just been released.
Columbus police on Tuesday night released bodycam footage showing an officer’s fatal shooting of a 16-year-old girl earlier in the day. Police have not identified the teen, but family members told 10TV she was Ma’Khia Bryant. Bryant’s aunt told The Columbus Dispatch that Bryant lived on the block at a foster home.
In a social media post, Bryant’s mother described her daughter as a “peaceful, loving little girl” who had a “motherly nature about her” and “promoted peace.”
“Ma’Khia had a motherly nature about her. She promoted peace,” said the 16 year-old girl’s mother, Paula. pic.twitter.com/vhBauZn3Kc
— Lacey Crisp (@LaceyCrisp) April 21, 2021
The shooting has already sparked protests in the city that threaten to spread nationwide.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is conducting an independent probe of the shooting according to Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther.
The truncated video begins at the moment the officer exits his vehicle and then encounters the teen who appears to be armed with a knife while chasing another girl outside of a home.
Seconds into the encounter, the girl who was being chased falls on the lawn in front of the cop. The officer screams at the girl wielding the knife to “get down”.
As the teen swings the weapon toward the second girl, the officer fires several shots, striking the teen. In the video, a black-handled blade resembling a kitchen knife can be seen in the video lying on the sidewalk next to the girl.
Police were called to the home at around 1645ET on Tuesday with reports of an attempted stabbing.
In the video below, which depicts a police press briefing where the video was played, the relevant footage begins at around the four-minute forty-five-seconds mark.
Via Zero Hedge