Dem Rep. Demings: Appears Officer in Ma’Khia Bryant’s Death ‘Responded as He Was Trained to Do’

Representative Val Demings (D-FL) said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that she thought the officer who fatally shot Ma’Khia Bryant in Columbus, Ohio “responded as he was trained to do.”

Anchor John Dickerson said, “Let me ask you about the George Floyd Policing Act and this awful incident, Ma’Khia Bryant in Ohio. So under- as I understand it, under the legislation, federal officials, police officers — they would be restrained from using excessive force unless a third party was in danger and unless they couldn’t deescalate. Those seem to be the facts of the case in the Bryant case, which means that under the standards set in the Floyd Policing Act, the officer, in that case, seems to have acted as they were trained and supposed to.”

Demings said, “Well, you know, John, when I served as a police chief, what I prayed for daily was that my police officers would respond as they are trained to do. Now, after every incident, we would have to go back and look at our policies and make sure that the policies met the moment. But look, I worked as a social worker with foster care children. So it’s a- it’s a sad moment for me. But I also was a patrol officer who was out there on the street having to make those split-second decisions. You know, now everybody has the benefit of slowing the video down and- and seizing the perfect moment. The officer on the street does not have that ability. He or she has to make those split-second decisions, and they’re tough. But the limited information that I know in viewing the video, it appears that the officer responded as he was trained to do with the main thought of preventing a tragedy and- and a loss of life of the person who was about to be assaulted.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

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