“I want the world to know that Ma’Khia was beautiful,” the teen’s mother,
CNN in an interview last week. “She had a sweet little voice. Oh my gosh, she was just so talented. She was … on the path to going many places, definitely.”
Don Bryant and
Deja Torrence, cousins of Ma’Khia, told
CNN the 16-year-old was “a good student, a good person,” and that her life was cut short by “disproportionate and unjustified use of force.”
Body camera footage of the teen’s shooting death was released and protests broke out in the city, which has seen several police-involved shootings in the last few months. Ma’Khia’s death came the same day as the verdict in the