Officer faces murder charge in shooting of pregnant Black woman accused of shoplifting

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio police officer was indicted Tuesday on 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 shoplifting 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. The daughter she was expecting three months later also died.

Court records did not list an attorney for Grubb. A message seeking comment was left with Blendon Township police.

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.