An autopsy by the Franklin County Coroner’s Office has confirmed 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant was shot four times in April by a Columbus police officer as she was about to stab a young woman with a knife outside a Southeast Side foster home.
The shooting was ruled a homicide, which is a standard coroner’s ruling in a case where someone takes another person’s life.
The autopsy report, which was released Monday, shows Bryant was shot four times on her right side by Columbus police officer Nicholas Reardon, who had responded a 911 call around 4:45 p.m. on April 20 about a disturbance involving a person with a knife at a home on the 3100 block of Legion Lane. The home is a foster home for teens where Bryant and her 15-year-old sister had been staying.
The bullets struck Bryant in her right shoulder, right thigh, the right lower portion of her torso and the right portion of her back, with the latter bullet traveling into a lung.
Officer Reardon’s body camera footage shows that as he arrived and got out of his cruiser, Bryant was charging toward a woman who either fell bacward or was pushed to the ground near the officer’s feet. Bryant then lunges at a second young woman, who is up holding a dog and pinned against a car, with a knife in her hand at the time Reardon fired.
Medical aid was rendered to Bryant, who died a short time later at a nearby hospital.
An investigation into the shooting was conducted by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and was sent to the Franklin County Prosecutor’s office in July. The review by the county prosecutor’s office into the investigation file remains ongoing.
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