An Ohio police officer was indicted Tuesday on multiple charges, including murder, in the shooting of Ta’Kiya Young, a 21-year-old pregnant Black mother killed by police in a grocery store parking lot last August.
A Franklin County grand jury indicted Blendon Township police officer Connor Grubb on charges of murder, involuntary manslaughter and felonious assault.
Young was suspected of stealing bottles of alcohol when 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.
According to CBS affiliate WBNS-TV, Young was at least 25 weeks pregnant at the time of the shooting. The daughter she was expecting that November also died.
Court records did not list an attorney for Grubb.
Blendon Township Police Chief John Belford said in a video posted to Facebook that disciplinary proceedings against Grubb would begin immediately, noting that people under indictment can’t legally possess firearms. Belford said the town wasn’t involved in the outside investigation into the shooting.
“I want to be very clear: We’re not passing any judgment on whether Officer Grubb acted properly. We haven’t seen the evidence,” Belford said.
Brian Steel, executive vice president of the union representing Blendon Township 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.