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Ma'Khia Bryant killing: Ben Shapiro slammed as 'racist' for defending cop Nicholas Reardon who shot dead teen

'A gun is supposed to be the last resort for a police officer,' said a user

After trolling CNN news host Don Lemon over the Derek Chauvin verdict on Tuesday, April 20, conservative political commentator and media host, Ben Shapiro, defended Columbus police officer Nicholas Reardon after he shot and killed a 16-year-old Black girl, Ma'Khia Bryant. 

The shooting took place around 20 minutes before the verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial was read out. Body camera footage released by police late on April 20 showed officers pulling up to a chaotic scene where three girls appeared to be in the midst of a brawl. Within just a few seconds, one of the girls involved in the fight can be seen wielding a knife as she lunges toward another girl. An officer yells, “Get down! Get down!” and then fires his weapon several times. A man yells, “She’s just a f**king kid, man!” The teen was transported to a nearby hospital, Mount Carmel East, but died of her injuries.

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Who is Nicholas Reardon? Columbus cop who fatally shot Ma'Khia Bryant, 16, was on force for less than 2 years

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Demands for justice for the teen and messages calling for the police officer who shot her to be held accountable flooded Twitter, especially in the backdrop of George Floyd killer Derek Chauvin's conviction.

Ben Shapiro made it clear on Wednesday, April 21, that he was not one of them. Instead, he was choosing to side with the cop who shot Ma'Khia, believing the officer chose the right course of action. "If you hate cops so much that you want them to stand by and let teenagers stab each other, let me suggest that you have lost your damn mind," Shapiro tweeted. 

He also condemned NBA star, LeBron James, after he tweeted, and then subsequently deleted, a reactionary post that contained a picture of Reardon with the caption which said, You're next #Accountability" with the emoji of an hourglass, insinuating the fact that time was ticking for the cop after Chauvin verdict. "Facts do not matter. Only the narrative matters," Shapiro wrote, retweeting a screenshot of LeBron's tweet. 

Shapiro was trolled for siding with the cop who shot Bryant rather than championing and calling for justice as people pointed out that the use of deadly force by the officer was unnecessary in the situation. "Could have used a taser and not a pistol Ben," one of them said, while another wrote, "If a friend or loved one of yours was one of the people in danger, I bet your opinion would change." A third commented, "Look at you Ben, being racist again. I've won several awards for how much I hate racism and I'm literally throwing up at your tweet. Do better." The next said, "Cops in the UK don’t carry guns, and there is a lot of knife crime. And yet, somehow they manage." 

One person remarked, "Those girls were also jumping her. So they kinda shot the victim (who was defending herself against 4 girls and a grown man kicking her in the head) of a crime in progress. So if you defend yourself you get shot and if she didn’t defend herself than that guy would’ve." Another said, "Like to see @benshapiro say this if it was a Jewish person being shot. God forbid." A commenter tweeted, "A gun is supposed to be the last resort for a police officer, we are simply suggesting that cops don't use it as their first option"

Another quipped, "You can try to properly defuse a situation before you just start spraying, but ig you dont care about people getting shot." A person reacted with, "Well no one in their right mind would suggest that, but it’s fair to question the officer’s choice of de-escalation. I feel like a taser would’ve worked just as fine, or even a singular shot into the chest. But four bullets? Come on, that’s obviously too much."