Ohio officer faces murder charges in shooting of pregnant Black woman
COLUMBUS — A Blendon Twp. police officer was indicted Tuesday on murder and other charges in the shooting of Ta’Kiya Young, a 21-year-old pregnant Black mother who was killed after being accused of shoplifting last August.
Young was suspected of stealing bottles of alcohol when Blendon Twp. police officer Connor Grubb and a fellow officer approached her car. The other officer ordered her out. Instead, she rolled forward toward Grubb, who fired a single bullet through her windshield into her chest. The daughter she was expecting three months later also died.
A Franklin County grand jury indicted Grubb on four counts of murder, two counts of involuntary manslaughter and four counts of felonious assault. Montgomery County assistant prosecuting attorneys are handling the case at the request of the Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office.
“While it is concerning that an officer sworn to uphold the law has been indicted for homicide charges, no one is above the law,” read a press release from the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office.
Brian Steel, executive vice president of the union representing Blendon Twp. police, called the indictment deeply disappointing. “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,” he said in a statement.
Young’s family members called for the officer to be charged shortly after the Aug. 24 shooting. After viewing bodycam footage showing the officer firing the gun, the family called his actions a “gross misuse of power and authority,” especially given that Young had been accused of a relatively minor crime.
In the video, an officer at the driver’s side window tells Young she’s been accused of shoplifting and orders her out of the car. Young protests, both officers curse at her and yell at her to get out, and Young can be heard asking them, “Are you going to shoot me?”
Seconds later, she turns the steering wheel to the right, the car rolls slowly forward and Grubb fires his gun. Moments later, after the car comes to a stop against the building, they break the driver’s side window. Police said they tried to save her life, but she was mortally wounded.
The encounter between Young and police was among a troubling series of fatal shootings of Black adults and children by Ohio officers, and followed various episodes of police brutality against Black people across the nation over the past several years.
Blendon Twp. Police Chief John Belford said the department has started a disciplinary review now that Grubb has been indicted.
“No one at Blendon Twp. has passed any judgment on whether Officer Grubb acted within the law,” the police chief said in a statement. “However, since people who’ve been indicted may not legally possess a firearm, the indictment against him leaves us with no choice but to begin the disciplinary process.”