Ma’Khia Bryant's 5-year plan: 16-year-old said she wanted to ‘run the world’ and open her own eyelash salon
Had it not been for the actions of Officer Nicholas Reardon, Ma’Khia Bryant might have gone on to achieve great things. The 16-year-old was fatally shot by the Columbus police officer, after an altercation at her house. Bryant is now being fondly remembered by her teachers and friends, who have given us an insight into the potential the teen had.
A student of Independence High School for just a few months, Bryant left an extremely positive impression on all of her classmates and teachers. Speaking to the media, one of those teachers indicated that Bryant was destined for great things and even emailed him a five-year plan to prove it.
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The teacher, Austin Owens, taught Bryant Business Education. Owens told NBC 4i that he was "heartbroken" that Bryant won't get to live out her dreams. Unlike many children of her age, Bryant knew very clearly what she wanted - to open her own eyelash salon.
Bryant's dreams
Owens said, "She was going to run the world and she wasn’t going to be ostentatious about it. She was going to do it.” According to the teacher, Bryant always sat in the front of his class and was "an amazing student". On April 22, just hours before she was shot, she emailed Owens her five-year plan. Bryant wanted to go to college and then open her own eyelash salon. "The language she used in her five-year plan was somebody who desperately wanted better for her life,” Owens told NBC.
According to Owens, Bryant said, she "wanted to make her parent proud" and wanted "to be a productive citizen." Speaking about her death, he said, "to get that information from a student who’s taking the time to reach out to you, to e-mail about something they want to do in the future and to have that removed, it’s hard".
Bryant joined Independence High in February but quickly became well-liked. The school held a vigil on Wednesday, April 21, night in her honor. Bryant's mother Paula also told WBNS that her daughter also recently made the honor roll. "We hugged each other. She said 'Mommy, I made honor roll'," Paula said. From the reports, we can surmise that Bryant was a dedicated and hardworking student with a bright future ahead. Unfortunately, she won't get to turn those dreams into reality.
Aftermath of shooting
The circumstances around her shooting are unclear as of now. According to police reports and bodycam footage, she was wielding a knife and was about to attack another female at the scene, when she was gunned down by Reardon. The officer has since been placed on leave, with calls for him to be sacked. Witnesses claim Bryant was defending herself, and that Reardon did not warn her to put the knife down before shooting.
Bryant was shot just hours prior to the historic guilty verdict handed to Derek Chauvin for killing George Floyd. Unfortunately, Bryant's family and friends couldn't celebrate the verdict. Hours after the shooting, students at the Ohio State University sat in protests in several common areas, demanding the university cut ties with the Columbus Division of Police. Leading Democrats, including President Joe Biden, have also addressed the shooting.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is currently investigating the shooting, and the results will determine if Reardon is to be fired.