NBA star LeBron James targeted the Ohio cop who shot and killed Ma’Khia Bryant, saying, “YOU’RE NEXT” in a since-deleted tweet.
The all-world hoopster posted the message on Twitter with a photo of Columbus Police Officer Nicholas Reardon, identified as the cop who shot the 16-year-old during a domestic dispute in the Ohio city Tuesday.
“YOU’RE NEXT,” he wrote, followed by a drawing of an hourglass. “#ACCOUNTABILITY,” Fox News reported Wednesday.
James later deleted it, and added as a follow-up: “ANGER does any of us any good and that includes myself! Gathering all the facts and educating does though! My anger still is here for what happened that lil girl. My sympathy for her family and may justice prevail!”
The pointed tweet came after a jury in Minneapolis on Tuesday convicted ex-cop Derek Chauvin of murder and manslaughter in the police custody death of George Floyd.
“ACCOUNTABILITY,” James, who has long been a vocal supporter of Black Lives Matter and has spoken out on racial justice issues, tweeted after the verdict.
Authorities in Ohio on Wednesday identified Reardon as the officer who shot Bryant, and said state investigators are probing the incident.
Police bodycam footage released by Columbus officials shows Bryant scuffling with two other girls, and lunging at one of them with what appears to be a knife in her hand.
That’s when Reardon is seen firing four rounds, dropping the teen to the ground mortally wounded. She later died at a local hospital.
