A neighbor of the Ohio teen shot dead by police said he saw the chaotic events that led to the fatal incident — and that video from his security camera led him to believe the cop had no choice but to fire, according to a report.
“They were calling each other the B-word, so I figured it was just a girl fight,” Donovan Brinson, who pulled up into his driveway as the fight unfolded Tuesday, told the Columbus Dispatch.
He said the yelling escalated moments later when he took his dog out back so he went back into his home.
And when police arrived, he said he heard four shots as his wife, Rachel, dove to the floor.
Brinson said he looked out the window of his laundry room and saw the mortally wounded Ma’Khia Bryant lying on the ground.
He quickly thought of his surveillance camera affixed to the garage and watched the shocking footage, which captured the fight and the glint of a knife.
“It was violent and all just happened so fast,” Brinson told the Dispatch, citing a girl dressed in pink who was the second female involved in the altercation with Bryant.
Brinson, who turned his video over to police, said he believed that had police not taken immediate action, more people could have been killed.
Brinson’s 26-second video — from much farther away from the footage released by police — shows as many as seven people either in front of Bryant’s foster home or emerging from inside, as a patrol car rolls up followed by a police SUV.
The foster mom told the newspaper that she was at work when the incident happened and declined further comment.
Another neighbor, Ira Graham III, a photographer and videographer who was working at home, said he heard the gunshots Tuesday afternoon.
“I saw a bunch of cop cars coming down the street,” he told the Dispatch, adding that he saw cops performing CPR on Bryant and that he later saw the police video of Bryant’s actions.
“I believe in truth and facts. Video doesn’t lie,” he said. “She was in full attack mode.”
The girl “was literally aiming a knife at this young lady,” Graham said of the female in pink. “She needed to be stopped at that point. That young lady’s life was at stake.”
Meanwhile, another resident wondered why the officer who shot Bryant didn’t use a Taser instead.
Kayla Cobb, 23, said she left flowers at the scene “because she was a baby.”
“He should have told her to put down the knife,” Taylor said.
Tommy Taylor, who also placed a bouquet there, said about the police officer who killed the teen: “He should have told her to put down the knife.”
The officer, who has been placed on paid leave, has been identified in a report as Nicholas Reardon, a US Air National Guardsman who received an expert marksman badge.