Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.) is weighing in on the shooting of 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant.
Bryant, who charged two women with a knife, was fatally shot by a Columbus police officer last week. This sparked protests in Columbus, Ohio’s state capital.
During Sunday’s interview on CBS’s “Face The Nation,” Demings called the incident a “sad moment.”
Demings, a former police chief in Orlando, continued to say that an “officer on the street” has to “make those split-second decisions, and they’re tough.”
She added, with the “limited information” she knows and after viewing the body-camera video, “It appears the officer responded as he was trained to do.”
Former Orlando police chief @RepValDemings weighs in on the Ma’Khia Bryant shooting:
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) April 25, 2021
"It appears the officer responded as he was trained to do," she tells @jdickerson based on footage she's seen.
She calls the incident a "sad moment." pic.twitter.com/HuVs13MBsJ
Demings’ Democratic colleague Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) expressed frustration following the fatal shooting.
Tlaib tweeted on Thursday, “Ma’Khia’s TikTok videos show her childhood and joy. Her smile at the end of the videos just breaks me a little more. It’s been maddening to see so many people strip away the fact that a child was killed. We cannot be a society that justifies the killing of a child.”
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki responded to the fatal shooting during a press briefing last week, saying, “The killing of 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant by the Columbus police is tragic. She was a child. We’re thinking of her friends and family and the communities that are hurting and grieving her loss.”
Psaki added, “We know that police violence disproportionately impacts Black and Latino people in 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.”
State investigators in Ohio are investigating the fatal police shooting.
On Sunday, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) said on “Face the Nation” that he believes there is a “clear pathway” for police reforms.
“I think there’s a clear pathway in regard to police reform. I think there are things that we all can come together on, Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative,” DeWine said.
