Funeral services for 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant have been scheduled for this week. WKYC reported that a viewing and funeral service will be held at the First Church of God in Columbus, Ohio on Friday (April 30). The church’s senior pastor, Bishop Timothy Clarke told the outlet that additional details are being worked out including if the services will be open to the public.
Ma’Khia was fatally shot last week by Nicholas Reardon, a police officer in Columbus after her family says she called the department for help.
“I want the world to know that Ma’Khia was beautiful,” the teen’s mother, Paula Bryant told CNN in an interview last week. “She had a sweet little voice. Oh my gosh, she was just so talented. She was … on the path to going many places, definitely.”
Don Bryant and Deja Torrence, cousins of Ma’Khia, told CNN the 16-year-old was “a good student, a good person,” and that her life was cut short by “disproportionate and unjustified use of force.”
Body camera footage of the teen’s shooting death was released and protests broke out in the city, which has seen several police-involved shootings in the last few months. Ma’Khia’s death came the same day as the verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial who was convicted of murdering George Floyd last year.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is reportedly conducting an investigation into the shooting of Ma’Khia.
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