Officials: Police fatally shoot teen girl in Ohio

A teenage girl was fatally shot by police in Columbus, Ohio, on Tuesday afternoon, officials said, shortly before a jury reached a guilty verdict in the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in last year’s killing of George Floyd.

The girl’s death cast an immediate pall over public expressions that justice had been served in Floyd’s case and touched off protests in Ohio’s capital city.

The Columbus Division of Police did not immediately provide details about the shooting, which was confirmed on Twitter by the city’s mayor, Andrew Ginther.

“This afternoon a young woman tragically lost her life,” Ginther said. “We do not know all of the details. There is bodyworn camera footage of the incident. We are working to review it as soon as possible.”

The Columbus Dispatch reported that police had been responding to a 911 call about an attempted stabbing when the shooting took place around 4:45 p.m.

Ginther said that the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation would conduct an independent inquiry.

A woman interviewed by The Dispatch identified the victim, who was Black, as her 15-yearold niece. The woman, Hazel Bryant, told the newspaper that her niece lived in a foster home and got into an altercation with someone else at the home.

Bryant said her niece had a knife, but maintained that the girl had dropped the knife before she was shot multiple times by a police officer, the newspaper reported.