Ta’Kiya Young, a 21-year-old Black woman suspected of shoplifting, was sitting in the driver’s seat of her car in front of the store when she was confronted by two Ohio police officers ordering her out of the car – including one officer standing directly in front of her car in violation of departmental policy.
Body camera footage shows Young then tried to drive away from the scene by turning her steering wheel to the right before accelerating forward a few inches in an apparent effort to avoid striking the cop standing in front of her car with his gun drawn.
But that was when the cop opened fire, killing the mother of two children with one on the way.
On Tuesday, Blendon Township police officer Connor Grubb was indicted by a Franklin County grand jury on four counts of murder, four counts of felonious assault and two counts of involuntary manslaughter, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
“This indictment speaks to the resilience and persistence of those who demand accountability when gross misuses of power occur,” said Sean Walton in a statement, the attorney representing Young’s family.
“The actions that led to the death of Ta’Kiya — the unnecessary aggression, the chilling commands that amounted to ‘comply or die’ — were there for us all to witness in dreadful clarity. Ta’Kiya’s life and that of her daughter were extinguished in an act of brutality.”
In an email to Atlanta Black Star, Walton explained that the four counts of murder and felonious assault apply to the two victims, Young and her unborn child.
“There are counts that have different elements that apply to both Ta’Kiya and her unborn daughter,” he said. “That is a question that is geared more toward the prosecutors, but all of the charges apply to Ta’Kiya or her unborn daughter.”
Grubb, 29, who has been employed by the Blendon Township Police Department since 2019, turned himself in on Tuesday after a warrant was issued for his arrest. He is scheduled to attend his arraignment on Wednesday.
“Like all law enforcement officers, Officer Grubb had to make a split-second decision, a reality all too familiar for those who protect our communities,” said a statement from Brian Steel, who is executive vice president of the union representing Blendon Township police.
But that split-second decision was a result of Grubb standing directly in front of the suspect’s car which is a violation of the Blendon Township Police Department’s use-of-force policy, which states the following:
300.4.1 MOVING VEHICLES Shots fired at or from a moving vehicle involve additional considerations and risks, and are rarely effective.
When feasible, officers should take reasonable steps to move out of the path of an approaching vehicle instead of discharging their firearm at the vehicle or any of its occupants.
An officer should only discharge a firearm at a moving vehicle or its occupants when the officer reasonably believes there are no other reasonable means available to avert the imminent threat of the vehicle, or if deadly force other than the vehicle is directed at the officer or others.
Officers should not shoot at any part of a vehicle in an attempt to disable the vehicle.
“What is clear from the video is that she did not try and run him over,” said Walton in a statement last year. “She turned the wheel as far away from him as possible before the vehicle began to slowly move forward and to the right, and Grubb had every opportunity to follow departmental policy and take evasive action instead of discharging his firearm into Ta’Kiya’s chest.”
The Shooting of Ta’Kiya Young
The incident took place on Aug. 24, 2023, in front of a Kroger grocery store in Blendon Township, a municipality with a population of about 10,000 people bordering Columbus, the capital of Ohio.
Surveillance video from inside the liquor section of the store shows Young stuffing several bottles of alcohol inside a bag before walking out of the store with two other women.
Young then walked to her car, a black Lexus parked in a handicap space while the two other women drove away in a separate car, according to police.
A Kroger employee informed two Blendon Township police officers who were in the parking lot that Young had stolen several bottles of liquor, which was when they approached her.
The first cop walks up to the driver’s side window and begins knocking on her window, ordering her out of the car multiple times.
“For what?” Young responds, according to the body camera footage.
“They said you stole stuff. Do not leave,” the cop responds.
But she tells the officer it was the two other women who stole the items.
“Then get out,” the cop orders with his gun remaining holstered but holding a black object to shatter her window.
“I’m not going to do that,” she responds.
That was when Grubb walked up to the car, pulled out his gun, and stood in front of the car, pointing it at her, ordering her to “get out of the car.”
“Are you going to shoot me?” she asks before turning her steering wheel to the right and accelerating, prompting Grubb to fire one shot. Her car continued driving for about 50 feet before coming to a stop on the sidewalk in front of the strip mall.
Afterward, Blendon Township Police Chief John Belford refused to release the names of the officers involved, citing Marsy’s Law, a law meant to protect the identity of crime victims.
But Grubb’s name was released about two weeks later by Walton, the family attorney.
“To use Marcy’s Law to cloak officers from facing the consequences of their actions is an insult to every victim of police violence, an inversion of justice and moral accountability,” he said in his statement following the indictment.
Last year, Young’s grandmother, Nadine Young, filed a complaint with the Ohio Supreme Court, demanding the release of the names of the officers, which was partially granted when the court ordered the Blendon Township Police Department to release the records under seal to the court.
“It’s been, for me, agony,” Nadine Young said during a press conference following the indictment. “It’s been like a whirlwind of hurt and pain.”
Nadine Young is now raising the two surviving children.
“I would like to see him get a long sentence for taking her life and her baby’s life. It’s not fair that we don’t have her or the baby, and he was running around a whole year with paid administrative leave,” the grandmother said in the press conference.
