COLUMBUS — The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation has now referred two Columbus-area police shootings to the Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office for a grand jury to decide whether charges should be approved in the case.
The deadly shooting involving Ma’Khia Bryant on Legion Lane in Columbus is one of the shootings a grand jury will have to consider whether the officer involved should be charged.
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Bryant was killed April 21 after Columbus police officer Nicholas Reardon shot her. He responded to a 911 caller who said a group of girls were fighting and trying to stab someone.
“We’ve got these grown girls over here trying to fight us, trying to stab us, trying to put their hands on our grandma,” the female caller said. “We need a police officer here now.”
Bryant was a former student at Trotwood-Madison Local Schools, the district’s Superintendent Reva Cosby said.
The other shooting referred to prosecutors was the March 8 shooting involving officers from Columbus police and Franklin County Sheriff’s Office and Andrew Teague on the I-270 Walnut Creek Bridge.
Ohio BCI is called in to investigate potential crimes when a law enforcement agency or prosecutor requests them to be involved. The two shootings referred today to prosecutors were conducted pursuant to a memorandum of understanding between the Columbus Division of Police and BCI, which was signed in August 2012.
“After the investigation is completed, the investigative report is provided to the prosecutor’s office and, with the prosecutor’s approval, to the requesting agency,” the Ohio Attorney General’s Office said. “Those entities may then use the investigation to determine the appropriateness of the officer’s actions.”