Ma'Khia Bryant Protest Photos: Columbus Demands Justice For Police Killings

Source: Stephen Zenner / Getty

The brief sense of relief on Tuesday from Derek Chauvin‘s murder conviction for killing George Floyd quickly gave way to the familiar sense of anger and disbelief in Columbus, Ohio, where police killed a Black teenage girl just around the same time a jury was delivering its verdict in Minneapolis.

By Tuesday night, protesters took to the streets to demand justice for the loss of Ma’Khia Bryant‘s life. The 16-year-old had reportedly called the Columbus Police Department seeking help for herself before winding up dead from the subsequent response to that fateful call.

Bryant’s killing was at least the third Columbus police officer-involved death since December, with all of them coming under questionable, if not completely preventable, circumstances.

Despite tensions being high following the shooting and verdict’s announcement, there were no arrests reported in Columbus Tuesday night.

The Columbus Post-Dispatch reported that protesters marched through downtown Columbus on the way to the Ohio Statehouse while chanting, “Whose streets? Our streets!” From there, the protesters marched to the Columbus Police Department headquarters and eventually breached a taped barrier.

Circumstances leading up to Bryant’s shooting were still being sorted out Wednesday morning, but initial reports suggested she called police because other teenagers came to her house with the intention of harming her. But when police arrived, Bryant was shown on bodycam wielding a knife and was shot just as she appeared to be following through with a stabbing motion toward another teenager.

The police department released the bodycam footage hours after the shooting in an apparent justification of the shooting. The officer who killed Bryant fired his gun four times at close range. It was unclear how many times Bryant was struck.

But for the protesters, it seemed, the circumstances were beside the point. Instead, the fact that the Columbus Police Department has all but declared open season on Black people was much more concerning.

Before Tuesday afternoon, there had been 26 investigations of officers for shootings since the beginning of the year, with six of those shootings happening in Columbus. In February, a grand jury returned an indictment against former Columbus police officer Adam Coy in the killing of Andre Hill, 47.

Hill was killed just three days after Christmas while walking from a friend’s garage and two months before Casey Goodson Jr. was shot in the back when cops purportedly mistook the sandwiches the unarmed Black man was holding for a gun. Goodson was shot by officers who were investigating another incident as he entered his grandmother’s home.

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Scroll down to see some more scenes from the protests in Columbus demanding justice for police killing Ma’Khia Bryant and other Black people.

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Black Lives Matter activists led by Hana Abdur-Rahim, a local organizer, march through downtown Columbus.

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Black Lives Matter activists march through downtown Columbus.

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Black Lives Matter activists march through downtown Columbus.

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A Black Lives Matter activist holds a sign against police brutality in front of the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus.

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Black Lives Matter activists raise their fists and give the finger to Columbus Police.

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Dejuan Sharp, a member of a local BLM group, the Downtownerz, stands in front of the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus.

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Black Lives Matter activists form a line across from a line of police to protest the police shooting of Makiyah Bryant in Columbus.

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A Black Lives Matter activist kneels in front of a police line outside of the Columbus Police headquarters.

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Black Lives Matter activists raise their fists outside of Columbus Police headquarters.

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Dejuan Sharp comforts Blue Patterson, both of the Downtownerz, as they stand in front of the Ohio Statehouse after police killed Ma’Khia Bryant.

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Blue Patterson (Left) and Dejuan Sharp (right), both of the Downtownerz, stand in front of the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus.

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Black Lives Matter activists stand with shields outside of the Columbus Police headquarters.

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Black Lives Matter activists march in solidarity in Columbus.

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Black Lives Matter activists wear clothes commemorating the victims of police brutality during a protest outside of the Columbus Police headquarters.

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Black Lives Matter activists led by Hana Abdur-Rahim, a local organizer, marches through downtown Columbus.

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Black Lives Matter activists march around the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus.

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Black Lives Matter activists march through downtown Columbus.

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Nygeria Rahmon, 21, of Columbus, holds her one-year-old child at a protest outside of the Ohio Statehouse.

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Black Lives Matter activists form a line across from police in Columbus.

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Black Lives Matter activists confront Columbus Police.

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Black Lives Matter activists march to the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus.