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What Officer Reardon Prevented Just Happened Somewhere Else: 13-Year Old Girl Charged with Murder

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  April 22, 2021 8:30 PM

On Tuesday, the same day as Derek Chauvin was found guilty in the charges against him in the death of George Floyd, 16-year old Ma'Khia Bryant gained attention after she was killed by Officer Nicholas Reardon. Video footage from various angles shows that Bryant had a knife, and that Reardon may very well have saved the life of at least one intended victim, the young woman in pink. All sides of the issue, from CNN's Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo, to Dana Loesch, have offered that Reardon's actions were reasonable. Unfortunately, what Officer Reardon likely prevented happened just the night before in another part of the state, as a 13-year old identified as J.P. is charged with the murder of another 13-year old Nyaira Givens. 

The fatal stabbing appears to have occurred between two former friends, with J.P. pulling a pocket knife on Givens, as Local 12 reported. 

WLWT 5 News features Givens' father, Maurice Jackson, whose grief you can only begin to imagine in reading what he had to say. 

"I held her. I watched her as she died. I watched her, you know. All I could do was just hold her, hold her," Maurice Jackson said.

Devastation, heartache and loss are all emotions that Jackson, Nyaira Givens' father, is feeling after her sudden death.

"I tried. I tried to stop the bleeding," Jackson said.

There are so many feelings he cannot escape, and many people wouldn't be able to either, after the loss of a child.

Cincinnati police said Givens was stabbed to death by another 13-year-old girl during a fight near the family's home on Topridge Place.

Prayers on Tuesday evening helped ease the heartache, but just barely.

"Just tried my best to protect her and be the father I could be, you know? I guess I didn't pay attention to all the other stuff that was going on around her," Jackson said.

He said his daughter was the second oldest of seven children.

He also said she helped keep the family together and loved school.

Jackson told WLWT his daughter was a freshman at Aiken High School and went to school with the girl who stabbed her.

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"The pain I'm feeling right now, it's just, I can't explain it. It's very unexplainable. She should be burying me. I shouldn't be burying her," Jackson said.

Givens' father said she was smart, mature and wanted to be a hairstylist.

He said she wanted to bring beauty to the world.

Sadly, Givens' name is not as well known as Bryant's, though. Fortunately, Ben Shapiro, Dana Loesch and Geraldo Rivera have given this 13-year old some of the attention she deserves. Fox News' Stephen Sorace has also reported on the story, while Fox News' "The Five" covered it as well.

Some others on Twitter have had good takes, but again, it gets nowhere near as much attention.

Would any of Bryant's intended victim or victims, if they had tragically lost their lives, have gotten as much attention? We may already know that, though.

As a reminder, here's what was said about Bryant, using false information to do so, from those who should have spoken up about Givens just as much.