While it is extraordinarily uncommon for someone to defend a police officer in today’s climate, a neighbor with home-surveillance video of the Ma’Khia Bryant shooting seemed to do just that.
In an exclusive Fox News interview, Donavon Brinson said the Ohio police officer “reacted with what he thought was his best judgement.”
While Brinson did not witness the incident himself, he reviewed the surveillance footage captured from his home, which is located across the street from where the events took place.
The new footage provides a different perspective and angle on the incident.
“The video doesn’t lie,” he said. The police officer “did what he thought was best” in the split-second moment.
As reported by Human Events News, 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant called 911 for assistance after a group of girls allegedly threatened her.
“We need a police officer here now,” a girl is heard telling an operator in one recording, as yelling is heard in the background. “We got these … grown girls over here, trying to fight us.”
Body camera footage showed the teen attacking two other people with what appeared to be a knife.
On video, Bryant can he heard screaming, “I’m going to stab the f*** out of you, b****.”
As the altercation escalated, the officer drew his weapon and fired four shots. An officer can later be heard saying: “she had a knife, she just went at her.”
“This never should have happened,” the teen’s mother, Paula Bryant, said. “She’s a loving girl.”
Brinson said that the officer didn’t have much of a choice since he “only had seconds to respond.”
“From my point of view watching this, unfortunately, the whole scenario put him in a bad spot regardless of what the situation was,” he said.
“He could have either not fired and the young lady in pink could have got stabbed in the neck or would have been fatally injured and then responded and shot and that would have been two young ladies possibly dead, or he could have responded the way that he did and unfortunately one lady lost her life in the incident that probably could have been avoided,” he added.
Brunson also said he wasn’t sure what the fight was about, but noted that when he and his wife returned from lunch, they came across a “young lady in pink and another young lady out front exchanging words.”
“We didn’t think too much about it, but they were very, very loud. You could tell they were upset about something,” he continued.
