NAACP Pres: ‘A Taser Should Have Been Used’ in Columbus Police Shooting

During an interview with ABC News released on Wednesday, NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson said that the fatal police shooting of Ma’Khia Bryant in Columbus, OH was a situation “where a taser should have been used, and yet a gun was used.”

Johnson stated, “Well, you know, we have a situation in Minnesota where a police officer claimed to be reaching for a taser, pulled a gun. And now, we have a situation in Ohio where a taser should have been used, and yet a gun was used. We have to create a new standard of trust and safety when it comes to law enforcement. And that can only happen if we have a federal policy floor that will give all of us a sense of security that when officers have been called out to these incidents, they have the proper training, they understand how to de-escalate, and the proper weapons are used that’s consistent with the threat or apparent threat that’s there. Now, until the investigation is completed and other footage come[s] out, we really don’t know what happened.”

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