A grand jury has indicted an Ohio police officer in the killing of Ta’Kiya Young, a 21-year-old pregnant Black woman, CNN reports.
According to police, Young was accused of shoplifting before she was shot by a Blendon Township officer in the parking lot of a Kroger store on August 24, 2023.
Surveillance video showed Young walking around Kroger and putting several alcohol bottles in her bag. Young stood in line at a register before alarms went off as she left the store with two other women.
In another video released by police, Young could be seen exiting the store and getting into the driver’s seat of a vehicle in the parking lot. Two officers approached the side and front of the vehicle, with one of them repeatedly instructing Young to “get out” of the vehicle.
Video showed the vehicle slowly moving forward. That’s when the officer standing in front of the vehicle fired through the windshield.
Young, who was pregnant, died at a hospital and the baby didn’t survive.
A grand jury indicted Officer Connor Grubb on four counts of murder, four counts of felonious assault, and two counts of involuntary manslaughter.
In a statement, Young family attorney Sean Walton applauded the indictment.
“Today marks a solemn victory in the pursuit of justice for Ta’Kiya Young and her unborn daughter, whose lives were tragically and unjustly taken at the hands of Blendon Township Police Officer Connor Grubb,” Walton said in a statement.
“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, becoming yet another symbol of the urgent need for reform in police conduct and accountability.”
Grubb’s arraignment is set for Wednesday (August 14).
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