COLUMBUS, Ohio — NBA star LeBron James posted a photograph on social media on Wednesday of the police officer who reportedly shot and killed a 16-year-old girl in Columbus, Ohio, writing, “YOU’RE NEXT. #ACCOUNTABILITY.”
Michael Woods, the interim police chief of Columbus, said at a press conference that video of the incident showed “the female with the knife,” who the police officer shot and killed, was “attempting to stab” another female in the video, Daily Wire reported.
So it appears the officer potentially saved the life of the victim, yet radical activists are railing against the use of force.
James tweeted out a photograph of the police officer, writing, “YOU’RE NEXT. #ACCOUNTABILITY.” James included an emoji of an hour glass, which is used to signify that time is running out.
“This is disgraceful & extremely reckless. The officer saved a young girl’s life. No amount of gaslighting will change that fact.”
– National Fraternal Order of Police
The National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) responded to James’ tweet by writing: “. @KingJames , with his vast resources & influence, should educate himself and, frankly, has a responsibility to do so, on the facts before weighing in. This is disgraceful & extremely reckless. The officer saved a young girl’s life. No amount of gaslighting will change that fact.”
.@KingJames, with his vast resources & influence, should educate himself and, frankly, has a responsibility to do so, on the facts before weighing in. This is disgraceful & extremely reckless.
The officer saved a young girl's life. No amount of gaslighting will change that fact. pic.twitter.com/GTHn1VAAlf
— National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) (@GLFOP) April 21, 2021
Columbus police moved rapidly on Tuesday to release body camera footage of the shooting to prevent rioting from breaking out as the trial involving former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin had just concluded.
“Normally we don’t provide information this soon, but we understand the public’s need, desire, and expectation to have transparency upon what happened,” Woods said. “We’ve worked very hard tonight to provide you a short video of the officer, the first officer that arrived at scene and this is the officer that did ultimately fire his weapon.”
“We know, based on this footage, the officer took action to protect another young girl in our community, but a family is grieving tonight and this young 15-year-old girl will never be coming home,” Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther said during the press briefing. “We think it’s critically important to share as much information as possible, as quickly as possible. So we’ll continue to share footage, other information in the hours and days ahead, making sure we’re not in any way shape or form compromising the independent investigation being done by BCI. We felt transparency and sharing this footage as incomplete as it may be at this time is critically important to make sure we were sharing good accurate information about what transpired today with the public and for this grieving family.”
James’ loathing social media post can be viewed as threatening. Thus far, we haven’t heard that he’s been banned from Twitter.
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