There’s an update to report on the case of a pregnant Black woman who was killed by an Ohio police officer.
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Last August, 21-year-old Ta’Kiya Young was shot and killed by a police officer in Blendon Township, Ohio, after she was suspected of stealing bottles of alcohol from a Kroger. The shooter, identified as Blendon Township Police Officer Connor Grubb, fired into the pregnant woman’s car while she was slowly accelerating towards his direction (while clearly trying to pull away) after she refused to exit on command.
Young’s family has been calling for Grubb’s arrest and prosecution since video footage of the incident was released. Now, state investigators have finished their investigation into the shooting, and it’s up to a grand jury to decide whether Grubbs will be charged criminally for a shooting many people view as plainly unnecessary.
WOSU reports that Prosecuting Attorney Janet Grubb, who is not related to the cop who shot Young, said that the officer’s possible indictment is in a grand jury’s hands now.
“The people who will sit in judgment of whether or not to indict Officer Grubb will be Franklin County grand jurors. The only difference will be is that there will be two assistant prosecuting attorneys who normally try cases in Montgomery County,” Janet Grubb said, according to WOSU.
Montgomery County spokesperson Greg Flannagan told WOSU that County Prosecutor Mat Heck and Assistant Prosecutors Jennifer Buschur and Richard Glennon are the special prosecutors assigned to the case and said that he didn’t have more to share regarding the pending case.
Last September, a video started floating around social media that appeared to show Young putting two bottles of alcohol in a bag, and, predictably, some people (boot-licking, anti-Black Caucasians, to be exact) felt the footage vindicated the officer and flew in the faces of protestors who want to see Young’s killer brought to justice.
But many of us understand that even if she did steal—which Walton has disputed, saying the “bottles were left in the store”—shooting an accused shoplifter dead when there was plenty of time to simply move out the way is an example of cops being more trigger-happy than they are interested in protecting the public.
Don’t tell us how courageous cops are and then justify it when their first resort is to shoot to kill rather than face even the most minimal risk to their safety.
Ta’Kiya Young isn’t dead because cops are brave.
Now, we wait to see what the grand jury decides.
