COLUMBUS, Ohio — Nearly a week after the fatal shooting of Ma'Khia Bryant by a Columbus Division of Police officer, and a weekend of protests in Downtown Columbus, Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther updated Spectrum News 1 on the state of the city and guiding the community through its current turbulent state.

Ginther said the city is grieving the loss of a member of its community, and Bryant’s age makes it even more devastating for those in grief.

“You know, I’m not just the mayor of the city, I’m a father, and our hearts are hurting right now and continuing to lift up the Bryant family in our thoughts and prayers and doing all we can to support them during this very difficult time,” Ginther said.

His personal upbringing also contributed to his desire to ensure to make sure the city does its part to make the community its best and a safe place for all its residents.

“My parents fostered kids in our house for decades, so I had a lot of foster sisters and brothers that had some of the same challenging upbringings and childhoods, and I thought a lot about my foster sisters and brothers when this happened,” Ginther said. “And nothing will bring her back but we owe it to her a complete, thorough and independent investigation, and to fix things that didn’t go right moving forward.”

He said it is extremely important during the current state of the city and during the ongoing investigation for people to recognize the humanity in each other.

“Well, I think what’s important right now is that all of us give each other some grace and recognize each other’s humanity,” Ginther said. “What a lot of folks don’t understand is that the ongoing accumulative trauma, particularly for our African American community, when you see African American, upon African American, upon African American dying at the hands of law enforcement, not just here in the city, but in cities across the country, that is a cumulative effect and there is a great deal of frustration, rage, anger, resentment, mistrust right now that is on top of all the grief.”

He said the first step in the process is to recognize the trauma, fear and mistrust in the community among neighbors and acknowledge change and reform must take place. He said that is why transparency, accountability and oversight are crucial.

“I think transparency is always critical, but particularly when you’re dealing with crisis, and there is certainly a crisis involving the death of a 16-year-old girl at the hands of law enforcement,” he said.

He said with true and untrue reports circulating that began spreading after the shooting occurred, he felt it was crucial to get the information city officials had, including police reports, 911 calls and body-worn camera footage, out to the public.

“I trust the public. I trust the community,” Ginther said.

As the investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations continues, Ginther said he is unaware of any federal probe to be done on the Columbus Division of Police, like the ones conducted on the Milwaukee and Louisville police departments.

He said interim CPD Chief Michael Woods officially retired Friday, April 23, but will remain on staff as the interim chief on a supplemental contract throughout the transitional period.

Ginther said he hopes to have a new chief hired by the end of May, after public forums give community members the chance to address their concerns to the candidates.

"There will be a public forum for folks to interact," Ginther said. "It will probably be virtually just to keep everybody safe, to ask some of the finalist for the chief position questions, get them to share their visions for the future of police in Columbus, what neighborhood safety means to them, and then after that forum, I’ll make a final decision and hoped to have a chief named by the end of May.”