Police officer investigated after TikTokker catches him invoking Ma’Khia Bryant ‘stab’

Body camera footage shows Ma’Khia Bryant moments before she was shot (Columbus Police Department )
Body camera footage shows Ma’Khia Bryant moments before she was shot (Columbus Police Department )

A police officer in Washington DC is under investigation for suggesting Ma’Khia Bryant was shot because she was trying to stab someone.

In a viral TikTok video that has been seen almost a million times, a group of police in the US capital are confronted by a man asking if "are y’all gonna kill me like Ma’Khia Bryant? F*ck".

"Are you going to stab somebody like her?" one of the officers responds off camera.

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police Department confirmed in a statement to The Independent they are aware of the incident and are currently investigating.

Police fatally shot Ms Bryant last Tuesday in Columbus, Ohio as she lunged at another girl while holding a knife shortly before Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murdering George Floyd.

In the TikTok video, someone replies that, "no", he’s not going to stab someone like Ms Bryant, before the officer says "OK".

"But she called y’all for help. F*ck is you talking about. Get your goofy ass, I can’t, and you just said that on camera, this shit going viral.”

While the family of Ms Bryant has said she made the original 911 call to police, the claim has not been independently verified.

Watch: Democrat Val Demings defends officer in Ma'Khia Bryant shooting

Columbus Police Department Interim Chief of Police Michael Woods told reporters last week that emergency dispatch received a call from a woman saying other girls were trying to "stab them and put their hands on them".

A spokesperson for the Attorney General’s office told Snopes fact-checkers that information on the 911 calls could not be shared while the shooting was being investigated.

The Metropolitan Police Department in Washington DC did not reveal details about the incident captured in the TikTok video beyond their awareness of it.

They confirmed to Insider that "the members in the video are MPD members", but as they’re all wearing masks it is unclear who was engaged in the conversation.

It is also unclear if the interaction was between police and a subject of their inquires, or with a bystander filming the interaction.

By Monday afternoon, the video was seen more than 925,000 times, received more than 130,000 likes, and was shared by more than 6,600 people.

After being told that the video would go viral, one of the officers replied: "That’s fine."

Watch: Rep. Bass - We have to find a way to hold police officers accountable (Graphic Warning)

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