Ma’Khia Bryant’s TikToks go viral as alternative to body cam footage

Social media users on Wednesday are sharing videos posted by Ma’Khia Bryant before her death.

The Ohio teen rose to national attention this week after she was shot by Columbus police on Tuesday during an incident that is being probed by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, according to NPR. 

Body camera footage of the incident released by police has been widely shared online. Many social media users indicated they wanted to honor Bryant by sharing videos of her while alive, rather than the violent footage of her death. 

“This is how we want to remember #MakhiaBryant. Joyful. Beautiful. Adorable,” wrote the social justice group Until Freedom on Instagram.

Newsweek reported that videos from Bryant’s TikTok channel have been shared more than 1 million times over the last day. She mainly posted hair tutorials.

One tweet that captured one of Bryant’s TikToks posted on Tuesday night has been viewed on Twitter more than 2 million times as of Wednesday afternoon.

“#makhiabryant deserved to be alive and happy with her family #SayHerName #BlackLivesMatter,” reads the post, which has also been shared thousands of times.

#makhiabryant deserved to be alive and happy with her family #SayHerName #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/kkRhWAd0yJ

— gracieミ☆ (@mercxkurt) April 21, 2021

Look at the art. Look at this black girl magic. Look at her joy! Look at that smile and that face. What a beauty. What a baby. Ma’Khia Bryant was just 16 years old. pic.twitter.com/r995IPGDL2

— miela fetaw / ሜላ ፍታዉ (@mielafetaw) April 21, 2021

If you can look at Ma’Khia sweet Tik Tok video playing with her hair, and be okay, with a wait and see approach, for justice, you and me aren’t the same

— Corey Bu-Shea (@coreybking) April 21, 2021

Watched a few of Ma’Khia Bryant’s TikTok videos. She was a child full of life and possibility. She was murdered by the police and it is devastating.

— blackness everdeen (@traceyecorder) April 21, 2021

I saw the news about Ma’Khia Bryant an hour or two after the verdict came in, and I literally couldn’t say it out loud yet.

Went to sleep w her on my mind. I don’t have any words. https://t.co/a4CgrUMaGU

— brittany packnett cunningham ain’t here for real. (@MsPackyetti) April 21, 2021

Bryant was shot moments before the conviction of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, according to NPR. Floyd’s death last year set off a wave of protests over police-involved shootings of Black Americans.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) linked Bryant’s death to Floyd’s in a tweet and wrote that Bryant “should be alive right now.” 

While the verdict was being read in the Derek Chauvin trial, Columbus police shot and killed a sixteen-year-old girl.

Her name was Ma’Khia Bryant. She should be alive right now. #MaKhiaBryanthttps://t.co/8SBdK4mxlE

— Sherrod Brown (@SenSherrodBrown) April 21, 2021