An Ohio police officer was indicted Tuesday on murder and other charges in the shooting of Ta'Kiva 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 Township 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 bullet through her windshield into her chest. The daughter she was expecting three months later also died, the Associated Press reports. A Franklin County grand jury indicted Grubb on charges of murder, involuntary manslaughter and felonious assault in the death of Young and her baby. Brian Steel, 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.
Young’s grandmother, Nadine Young, said the officer never should have pulled his gun when he first confronted her. “He took a lot from us,” she said Tuesday. “Its not fair. We don’t have her or the baby.” The last year has been difficult for the family, including her granddaughter’s two young sons, she said. “It’s been agony, it’s been like a whirlwind of hurt and pain,” she said. 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 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?”
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