Ma'Khia Bryant shooting: Foster mom Angela Moore blames 16-year-old as biological mom Paula 'plans to sue'
The tragic shooting of Ma'Khia Bryant is a result of a faulty foster care system, Bryant's family allege. The biological family of Bryant are also weighing their options, including legal action. It is unclear as of now who they will sue, but it could be Bryant's foster mother Angela Moore.
Moore has been accused of poor conduct by Ma'Khia's sister Janiah, who also lived in the same house. There are also multiple other reports of incidents at the same home, raising more questions about Moore's behavior and the safety of her foster home. Is the foster system responsible for Ma'Khia's death? Here's everything we know about Moore and the foster home she ran in Columbus, Ohio.
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Who is Angela Moore?
Not much is known about Moore. We couldn't find any social media profiles linked to her nor any mentions of her in the press beyond the shooting of Ma'Khia. We do know she ran a foster home for several years. She reportedly purchased the three-bedroom home at Legion Lane in 2014. At the time of the shooting, Moore was at work. We were unable to find out where she worked as well.
An article in The Sussie Report said that Janiah "wanted to leave the home and return to Franklin County Children Services." According to the article, on March 28, Janiah called 911 and told the dispatcher that her foster mother was “screaming and arguing”. The police report of the incident says Moore was shouting at Janiah after she got into an argument with Ma'Khia.
When the dispatcher told Janiah she could not be placed in another home, she "became irate and stated that if she does not get to leave, then she was going to kill someone in the home." Janiah was then taken to a local hospital for a psychological evaluation. Reportedly, Ma'Khia and Janiah's biological mother Paula was unaware of the incident. That isn't the only incident at the home though.
The report found a few other cases related to Moore's foster home. In December 2020, officers had to transport a 10-year-old to hospital after he was "knocking things off the Christmas tree and yelling". The previous month, Columbus PD responded to reports of a foster child running away after an argument. The child reportedly had a history of running away and returning.
We also do not know why exactly Ma'Khia was placed in foster care. Paula did not address the topic when she was interviewed. According to reports, Paula had five children, and was working on bringing Ma'Khia back home.
Is the system to blame?
Ma'Khia's cousin Deja Torrence spoke to Insider and provided some details on what the family intends. Torrence said, "Someone has to be held accountable. The family just doesn't want this to be another senseless killing that goes under the rug and gets overlooked." According to Insider, Torrence "said her cousin was failed by the foster system". The biological family has not been in contact with Moore, Torrence said.
Torrence also said that Ma'khia often complained about issues at Moore's home. "There's been some talk about the foster family in the past, of how she's had issues with the foster family. So as a family, we've tried to kind of navigate that over the years," Torrence said. She added, "They had custody of her, and so I just feel like the foster parents, and everyone in the foster system that was involved, failed her in that regard."
Moore told CNN that Ma'Khia was shot after she got into an argument with her former foster children. She said that two of her former foster children had come to celebrate her birthday when the dispute started. "The older one told them to clean up the house because 'Mom doesn't like the house dirty,'" she said. It is not clear exactly what followed. Moore said her former foster child told her that Bryant had allegedly taken offence to the statement. Bryant was said to have replied, "You're not the guardian of me," Moore told CNN. After the shooting, Moore said, she got a panicked phone call from one of the former foster children — the girl in pink — urging her to hurry back. Moore said she was told: "Mom, get home. Where are you? They're going crazy." "She said they shot Ma'Khia," Moore said. "I never in my worst nightmare would have thought it would ever come to this," she said.
According to Moore, Ma'Khia was the one that turned violent and began attacking the others. Torrence though, claims it wasn't in Bryant's character to be violent. "If I felt threatened, if I felt that a group of individuals was coming on my property where I lived to fight me, I would get whatever I needed to protect myself," Torrence said. She confirmed the family has contacted a lawyer, but no further details were provided.
Right now, we have two conflicting versions of the day so it is hard to say who is really to blame. Until the official police report comes out, we cannot say who is at fault for Ma'Khia's death.