Beatty, Brown, and Wyden Request Investigation Into Events Leading Up to the Death of Ma’Khia Bryant

WASHINGTON, D.C.— U.S. Congresswoman Joyce Beatty (OH-03), U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (OH), and U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (OR) are requesting an investigation into the events prior to the tragic death of 16-year-old Ma'Khia Bryant on behalf of her parents Paula Bryant and Myron Hammonds.

Before she was tragically shot to death by a police officer responding to a domestic dispute call, Bryant spent two years moving between at least five different foster care homes. State-level data show that Ohio children are placed in the foster care system at a rate 10 percent higher than the national average. Despite research indicating that kinship care is beneficial to children's health, well-being, and cultural identity, the State of Ohio provides far less financial support to a child who is placed with a kinship caregiver than it gives to a child placed in a licensed foster care setting.

"The federal government has an obligation to protect the civil rights of all individuals, especially those children, young people, and parents involved in federally-funded child welfare systems," wrote the lawmakers. "When a child dies in foster care, the system has failed." They continued, "It failed Ma'Khia Bryant, who lived in her foster family home for about two months before a police officer shot and killed her in front of that home on April 20, 2021."

A copy of the letter is available on Beatty's website.

###