Grand Jury Refuses to Indict Nicholas Reardon for the Shooting of Ma’Khia Bryant
(And the Grand Jury was right.)
On April 20, 2021, in Columbus, Ohio, Officer Nicholas Reardon, 23, was called to the home of Angela Moore in response to a 911 call.
Moore provided foster care from her home on the 3100 block of Legion Lane. Among her charges was 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant and her younger sister. Two years earlier, Bryant and three of her siblings were removed from her mother’s care and placed with her grandmother, where they lived for 16 months. But when Bryant’s grandmother’s landlord refused to allow Bryant’s grandmother to keep the children, Bryant was placed in foster care with Moore, where her younger sister had already been staying for a year.
And it was here that Ma’Khia Bryant would participate in an altercation that would ultimate in her death.
On this tragic day, Bryant and her sister were in Moore’s home with Tionna Bonner (1), 22, who was one of Moore’s former foster children. And as I researched the events that ultimately led to Bryant’s death, I can only shake my head as I learn that this brawl started over an argument concerning housework. A popular expression of the day comes to mind: “That escalated quickly.”
During a dispute between Bryant and Bonner, Bryant’s sister called their grandmother. Bonner called another former foster child of Moore’s, Shai-Onta Lana Craig-Watkins. Far from defusing things, the new arrivals apparently only exacerbated the situation. Bonner (according to Bryant’s sister and grandmother) took out a knife. Bryant then seized a steak knife from the kitchen.
At 4:32 PM, Bryant’s sister then called 911 (although some sources claim that it was Bryant herself that placed the call). “We got Angie’s grown girls trying to fight us, trying to stab us, trying to put her hands on our grandma. Get here now!”
Nicholas Reardon responded to the call. And at his arrival, we have his bodycam footage, footage from a neighbor’s surveillance camera, plus the bodycam footage from another police officer to verify the events.
Reardon’s bodycam footage as he arrived showed Bonner (the woman in pink) approaching Reardon. She did not appear agitated. I can’t figure out what she was carrying in her arm as she approached; it looked like she was holding flowers or a houseplant. Regardless, it did not appear to be a weapon. Several people were also seen on the driveway of Moore’s home.
It was then that Bryant and Craig-Watkins emerged from the gathering on the driveway, locked in mutual combat. Craig-Watkins then fell to the ground, almost into Officer Reardon, and Bryant fell on top of her. Reardon called out “Hey!” four times, but Bryant didn’t seem to even register the presence of a police officer. She quickly regained her feet, still holding the steak knife and charged at Bonner, while a man, later identified as Bryant’s father Myron Hammonds, began kicking Craig-Watkins, who was still on the ground.
Officer Reardon then pointed his service pistol at Bryant and ordered her to “Get down!” four times. He then fired four shots into Bryant, who appeared to be less than one second away from stabbing Bonner.
The police administered CPR until paramedics arrived. Bryant was transferred to Mount Carmel East, where she was pronounced dead at 5:21 PM.
In viewing the footage from Officer Reardon’s bodycam, I timed the incident from the moment his bodycam began recording as he exited his vehicle to his shooting of Bryant. This whole event as I described it took about 12 seconds. And from the time Bryant and Craig-Watkins appeared on the driveway to the moment when Reardon shot Bryant, it took about five seconds.
Protesters did not hesitate to cite this as an instance of police brutality against Black people. The following day, for instance, over 500 students of Ohio State University marched to the Ohio Statehouse, chanting “Black lives matter!” and “Say her name!”
Even as the police rushed forward to administer CPR to the dying Ma’Khia Bryant, the accusations that the shooting was racially motivated began. One Black man in the neighborhood yelled out, “You have no respect for life. No, actually, you have no respect for Black life.”
But despite the protests averring that this shooting was racially motivated, implying that shooting Ma’Khia Bryant was unnecessary, you would hard pressed to find a police shooting that was more justified.
Which didn’t stop protesters (who simply didn’t know or care about the facts of this situation) from insisting it wasn’t.
Immediately following the shooting, one of the neighbors was heard to say, “You ever hear of de-escalating? No, you guys just shoot.”
Myron Hammonds also had something to say to the police officer. “No! You ain’t shoot my [expletive] baby! You shot my [expletive] baby!”
Perhaps if Mr. Hammonds had concerned himself less with kicking a woman in the head as she lay sprawled on the ground, and more with halting the rampage of his “[expletive] baby” then his “[expletive] baby” might still be alive!
The idea that anyone could have de-escalated this situation is patently absurd. First, Ma’Khia Bryant did not stop or even hesitate in her actions, despite the clear presence of a police officer calling for order. Second, less than five seconds after Officer Reardon was even aware of Ma’Khia Bryant’s presence, she had already pinned Bonner against a car and was poised to strike, ignoring Reardon’s clear and repeated command to “Get down!”
There was simply no time to restore order to this chaos. Bryant was less than a second from stabbing Bonner. Expecting anyone to de-escalate this situation is asking them to perform the impossible. Ma’Khia Bryant was simply too far gone. She wasn’t even listening to the police officer’s instructions.
Which didn’t stop the media and their compliant lickspittles from applying a narrative which claims that Black people are being targeted by the police.
I’ve heard people make their arguments as to why Ma’Khia Bryant shouldn’t have died. Conveniently, a prominent media talking head, Joy Behar, seems to cover them all in a spiel of breathtaking stupidity. Will I be harsh on Behar? Probably. I think someone who is paid to voice their opinions on national television has a responsibility to research the facts before opening her mouth. And as we will see, Joy Behar failed massively in her duty to inform herself.
Referring to Don Lemon’s assertion that “the cop really had no choice or words to that effect,” Behar said, “I don’t know if that’s true or not. I really can’t figure it out any more.”
That being the case, Behar would have been better served had she stopped there. But no. She had to continue to yammer on, revealing her colossal ignorance.
“Shoot the gun in the air, as a warning,” she suggested.
First, Ma’Khia Bryant has clearly demonstrated that the presence of the police didn’t even slow her down, much less give her pause to consider her course of action. What makes Behar think a warning shot would have done anything? And if the warning shot didn’t work (and we have no reason to think it would have), Bonner would have been murdered. Then the eternally outraged would be demanding to know why Reardon didn’t prevent it.
And a warning shot? Was Behar sick the day that her school taught that “what goes up must come down”? A bullet fired into the air must eventually land somewhere. This was in a residential neighborhood. Plus there was a gathering of innocent bystanders near this altercation. And shots fired directly into the air have been known to strike innocent bystanders, even the person actually firing the gun. Which is why warning shots are illegal!
“. . . tase the person,” Behar continued.
The reason that a taser would not be a good option is that tasers are notoriously unreliable. While the manufacturer claims an effectiveness rate of 80–95% effective in the field, police departments in major cities report a significantly lower rate, anywhere between 54.7 to 79.5%.
Why are tasers unreliable? A taser discharges two prongs, with a thin conductive wire attached. Both prongs must make contact with the intended target, and they must both do so within a certain distance of each other. If either prong misses, or the barbs are too far apart, the taser will be ineffective. Also, if the subject is very large, a higher amount of voltage will be necessary. If, for any reason, the taser failed, Ma’Khia Bryant would have stabbed Bonner.
Because of their unreliability, tasers are not considered a viable option against deadly force. Since Ma’Khia Bryant was poised to strike with a knife (and already made clear her intent to use it), she basically gave up her right to be subdued with a taser, if you will.
Behar continues, “. . . shoot them in the leg, shoot them in the behind.” I’ll give Behar credit for one thing: this wasn’t quite as asinine as the suggestions that Officer Reardon should have shot Ma’Khia Bryant in the arm or even the hand. First, the leg or the buttocks presents a smaller target. Second, since Ma’Khia Bryant had already pinned Bonner to the car and was poised to strike, shooting in the leg or the buttocks is unlikely to have prevented her from striking.
And it need not be added that the arm or the hand presents a moving target that is very small. A miss from a stray bullet might go into someone’s home or strike Bonner or another bystander.
Police are trained to shoot center mass, as they should be. Not only does the torso present a larger target, the presence of vital organs is more likely to stop a target. A single shot, whether the torso or leg, is unlikely to stop anyone cold. This would also explain why Ma’Khia Bryant was shot four times. When the officer resorts to deadly force, he must ensure that the threat has been neutralized. And he did.
I am sorry that her life was ended in such a brutal fashion and at such a young age, but her actions that day made shooting her the only viable option available. She could have and should have stopped the instant she saw the police officer. Bonner was not posing an imminent threat. Ma’Khia Bryant had no call to act as she did.
Bryant’s death is not an indictment on Officer Reardon. He was left with little choice. Bryant’s death might be more appropriately blamed on Paula Bryant, Ma’Khia’s mother. Why were her children removed from the home two years earlier to finally be placed in foster care? And how about Myron Hammonds, Ma’Khia’s father? Why was exacerbating the situation by kicking a woman sprawling on the ground instead of trying to restrain his knife-wielding daughter? And what of all those onlookers on the driveway?
So, to those Ohio State University students chanting, “Black Lives Matter!”, there are legitimate instances of police brutality against black victims, such as the shooting of Walter Scott. But this incident is not one of them.
“Say her name!”
No.
Notes:
- When researching accounts of this story, I found that there is some disagreement among the sources as to the identity of Bryant’s would-be victim, who has also been referred to as the “woman in pink” because of her outfit. Wikipedia lists her as Tionna Bonner. But the various Associated Press articles identify the woman in pink as Shai-Onta Lana Craig-Watkins.
However, ABC News, like Wikipedia, identifies the woman in pink as Tionna Bonner. Because the Wikipedia entry and ABC News took to the trouble to identify Craig-Watkins by her full name while the AP refers to her as “Shai-Onta Craig,” I deferred to ABC and the Wikipedia entry and assumed the woman in pink is Bonner.