The Los Angeles Lakers player said his quickly deleted tweet made the conversation about himself rather than the teenager. The since deleted tweet read, "YOU'RE NEXT" along with an hourglass emoji, "#ACCOUNTABILITY," and what appeared to be a photo of the officer.
"I fueled the wrong conversation about Ma’Khia Bryant and I owe it to her and this movement to change it," he said, linking to a Vox article titled "Why they’re not saying Ma’Khia Bryant’s name." "Thank you @fabiolacineas for educating us about MaKhia and her story and why this needs to be about her. #sayhername #Blacklivesmatter."
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James's tweet, which seemingly threatened the officer for shooting Bryant, who was seen carrying a knife on police body camera footage, was widely scrutinized.
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Former President Donald Trump named the tweet "divisive," and the Los Angeles Police Department union sent a letter urging the NBA to investigate the tweet for threatening an officer. Other officers have mocked James or invited him to meet them to sit down for a discussion about police.
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James deleted the tweet shortly after he posted it "because it's being used to create more hate."
"This isn’t about one officer," James explained in a follow-up tweet. "It’s about the entire system and they always use our words to create more racism. I am so desperate for more ACCOUNTABILITY."
Bryant, a black 16-year-old, was fatally shot by an officer identified as Nicholas Reardon on a residential driveway in Columbus, Ohio, last month.
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The Columbus Division of Police released the body camera video, which showed her wielding a knife, and police claimed she was "attempting to stab" another girl when Reardon shot her several times. This was after Reardon repeatedly shouted, "Get down."
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Bryant was later declared dead at the hospital. The incident is currently being investigated by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
Bryant's death occurred less than half an hour before a Minneapolis jury convicted former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin of second-degree murder, one count of third-degree murder, and one count of second-degree manslaughter in the death of George Floyd.
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Last week, a Los Angeles Police Department union has sent a letter to the NBA urging it to investigate LeBron James over his tweet threatening a police officer involved in the Ma’Khia Bryant shooting.
The letter, sent by Detective Jamie McBride on behalf of the Los Angeles Police Protective League Board, asks NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to determine if the Los Angeles Lakers star violated any league policies by posting the now-deleted threat on Twitter, according to Fox News.
"LeBron James sent that tweet out to over 50 million followers, to incite violence is basically what that tweet did," McBride told Fox News’s Laura Ingraham on Thursday, calling the basketball player “one of the biggest hypocrites out there.”
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