Ma’Khia Bryant’s Foster Mother Says Argument Over Housework Preceded Fatal Shooting

The foster mother who was caring for a 16-year-old girl who was shot by police as she was holding a knife has revealed more about the circumstances that preceded the fatal shooting.

Ma’Khia Bryant was shot and killed by officer Nicholas Reardon just seconds after he arrived to a residence in southwest Columbus, Ohio, on Tuesday (April 20).

Ma’Khia Bryant’s mother account

According to relatives, Ma’Khia called 911 twice to report that a girl was trying to stab her. Reardon was one of the few officers who responded to the scene.

Based on recently released body cam footage of the encounter, Reardon approached the group of people who were standing by a driveway.

Bryant struck one of the individuals, who fell to the ground. When the teen wielded her knife at another young woman, the officer immediately fired, and she was shot.

Bryant was taken to a local hospital where she later died from her injuries.

Bryant had been living as a foster child

CNN reports, Bryant had been living as a foster child in Angela Moore’s home for about two months before she was killed. Moore told the news station that some of her former foster children had come to the house that day to celebrate Moore’s birthday and had gotten into an argument about housework.

“It was over keeping the house clean,” Moore said. “The older one told them to clean up the house because ‘Mom doesn’t like the house dirty … So that’s how it all started.”

Moore was at work when the argument began and did not arrive home before the fatal incident, and said her former foster children filled her in what happened when she returned home. The woman wearing pink in the police body cam video is believed to be one of Moore’s former foster children who was visiting that day, and she reportedly called Moore to share the tragic news. The CNN report indicates that the other people involved in the fight seen on police body cam footage are adults;

“They argue all the time, but I never thought it would escalate like that,” Moore told CNN. “I never in my worst nightmare would have thought it would ever come to this.”