Columbus, Ohio (AP) — 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant’s sister called 911 a few weeks before Bryant. Deadly shooting by Columbus police officerThe records show that the girls were fighting with each other and she said she wanted to leave her foster parents at home.
“I don’t want to be here anymore,” the girl told a police dispatcher, adding that she had been at home for over a year.
The 911 phone has been one of more than 12 calls made by foster parents in Columbus since 2017. Mostly because Angela Moore, the foster parent of the house, sought the help of a foster parent who went out without permission or did not return after going out. Documents and 911 calls obtained by the Associated Press through a record request.
Ma’Khia Bryant was shot four times by Police Officer Nicholas Riadon on April 20 when he shook a knife at a young woman just seconds after pushing another woman to the ground. Brian is black and Riadon is white.
Shooting further heightened tensions in Ohio’s capital Black deadly police shootingIncludes three other attention-grabbing deaths since December.A week after Brian’s death, Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther invited the Justice Department. Check the police station Due to possible “defects and racial disparities”.
However, Bryant’s murder also shed light on the state’s foster parent system, and lawyers representing the murdered teenage families sought an investigation into the foster parent system and whether the foster girl was properly supervised.
“The whole world has tried Makia based on this case of seeing Makia waving a knife,” said lawyer Michelle Martin this week. “But why don’t we look further and understand who those girls are? How did they get there? How rapidly this evolved. Is it? “
“What kind of trauma did you not deal with in your house? That means so many questions I have to answer,” she added.
Brian has only been at home since February, but Martin said she had been in foster care for a long time.
The treatment of black children by the Ohio foster parent system has already been scrutinized. A review ordered by Republican Governor Mike DeWine last month found it full of racial inequality.
Among other findings, children’s service systems may not be able to assess black voices and experiences and may not be equipped with foster parents to raise multi-ethnic families, resulting in children being human. I have experienced racism.
The system also found that foster parents were not ready for adulthood and that foster parents were having a hard time helping them. In response, the state has launched a new approach to recruiting and retaining foster parents, ordering caseworkers to be trained in racial equality.
Proponents say the reviews barely scratched the surface of racial inequality that pervades every corner of the system.
“Ohio’s foster care system has failed Makia at many levels,” said Dot Ericsson Anderson, director of the Ohio Family Care Association advocacy group. “This is a system that we have been struggling with for a long time with our image of what a family is.”
But former foster parent Ericsson Anderson said that Franklin County, where Bryant lived, is actually one of the best counties in the state in terms of overcoming “racism” embedded in the system. Said there is.
Records show that the children caring for Moore were all black, as was Moore. Records of foster parents and their parents are not published under state law. A message was left on Moore Friday.
On a March 28 call to 911 by Brian’s sister, the 15-year-old girl told police she wanted to move to another house.
Police reported that he was informed that the police couldn’t do it and said, “The victim was angry and said he would kill someone in the house if he didn’t leave.” The girl was later taken to the hospital for evaluation.
The 15-year-old sister attended a press conference on April 28 seeking an investigation, but did not comment.
Police have taken at least 13 reports related to foster children or other problems at home that have disappeared from their homes since 2017, records show.
Among them:
— On February 12, 2017, an 18-year-old woman telling police she intends to commit suicide because Moore won’t let her leave. According to Moore, the woman’s real mother was at home trying to take her daughter.
— On July 6, 2018, Moore reports that a child at home after March left with a friend and did not return.
— On July 13, 2019, two foster children, 14 and 17, left home, according to a report by Moore.
— Moore reports that a 13-year-old foster child left home after a quarrel with her foster parents on November 8, 2020.
— On December 9, 2020, Moore reported that he had to take a 10-year-old boy away because he was hitting something from a Christmas tree. “He’s ten years old. He’s turning me on,” Moore said on a 911 phone call over the boy’s cry.
— Moore’s April 7 report, just two weeks before Bryant’s deadly shooting — 13-year-old foster child leaves home.
Professor Michelle Johnson Motoyama of the Ohio State University School of Social Work makes it natural for children to leave their foster homes. Because they aren’t happy to be there in the first place.
“Most kids want to go home, no matter what happened in the house,” said Johnson Motoyama. “They want to go back to friends, go back to school, whatever they’re used to.”
Two days after her shooting, Franklin County Children’s Service said it was obliged to make changes.
“We are committed to ensuring that our programming and services best address the needs and concerns of the people we serve,” the agency said. “We continue to strive to dismantle the practices that have historically created barriers for those left behind in society, especially our children.”
Authorities did not return a message asking for comment on police records. Authorities called Bryant’s death a “tragic loss.”
A 16-year-old girl’s funeral was held at the first church of God in Columbus on Friday afternoon, and two other funerals were held in recent months for a black man shot dead by police. Including Andre Hill.
Critics of the use of force by police, including Bryant’s father and grandmother, and witnesses of Bryant’s shootings explained why police officers did not use other tactics before Bryant shot her, including deploying stun guns. Requested to know.
But many uses of coercion experts and some civil rights lawyers, officials said Followed his training Brian may have saved the girl who was attacking. The Fraternal Order of Police called shooting “a heroic act, but with tragic consequences.”
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Associated Press writer Julie Kerr Smith contributed to this report from Columbus. Farnoush Amiri is a corps member of the Associated Press / Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a non-profit national service program that places journalists in the local newsroom to report on unreported issues.