Ma’khia Bryant was a 16 year old girl who was shot dead in Columbus, Ohio on April 20.

Bryant was armed with a knife and was shot down by now confirmed police officer, Nicholas Reardon. Reardon’s body camera showed she was in the process of stabbing another young lady when the police shot her.

The tragedy of her death was ultimately caused by an argument between Bryant and two other women. Heavy.com reported that the foster mother of Bryant, Angela Moore stated that the argument was caused by a “messy house and unclean bed.” Moore said that similar arguments have sparked between the other foster care children, but Moore “…never thought it would escalate like that.”

The police arrived at the scene at 4.44 p.m. after a 911 call a few minutes before, which was identified as Bryant calling upon police to receive assistance during the argument. Seconds after officiers arrived at the scene, Bryant was seen pushing a young woman to the ground, and then lunge to stab another one around the facial area. According to Yahoo News, the policeman ordered her to stop, stating: “Hey! Get down! Get Down,” right before he fired the shots at her. The shooting occurred outside of her foster home where she was shot, and Bryant was officially pronounced dead at nearby hospital at 5:21 p.m. Bryant was in custody of Franklin County Children’s Services at the time of this event.

Rillian Block, a freshman at Cam High, stated, “I don’t believe that there was anyone in the right because the cop shouldn’t have killed the girl, but she was in the process of stabbing someone.” According to Block, Bryant, at the time, was shown to be the aggressor. Block believes this could have led the police officer to believe that in order to save the other girls life, he had to do all he could to stop Bryant from stabbing her–even fatally injuring her.

This has re-erupted Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests, and has been consequently trending on social media. A freshman at Cam High, Lex Moore, said, “Personally, I don’t think there should have been a protest because the cop had to make a quick decision to take action before she stabbed the girl.” There have been a numerous amount of protests demanding justice for Bryant, and the shooting was seen as a sign of disrespect to the African American community since the killing had taken place hours before the final verdict of the Derek Chauvin case.