Police release horrifying footage of officers shooting pregnant Black woman dead
A video showing a pregnant Black woman being fatally shot by police has been released.
Ohio police have publicly released bodycam footage showing the final moments of Ta'Kiya Young, a 21-year-old from Columbus, who was shot and killed by police in a parking lot last Thursday, August 24.
Ms Young, who was a mum-of-two expecting her third child, was pronounced dead shortly after the shooting outside a grocery store in the suburb of Blendon Township. Her unborn daughter did not survive either.
Suspected of shoplifting, police say Ms Young was killed after she accelerated her car toward an officer. The family's lawyer, Sean Walton, claims the police department has waited to release the bodycam video to minimise media attention on potentially damaging footage.
Blendon Township Police Chief John Belford said the delay resulted from a small staff trying to process the video and properly redact certain footage in accordance with Ohio law. The family were able to review the video before it was made public, he said.
Man in 30s dies after being stabbed in park sparking police probeThe police chief gave a brief account of the shooting in an August 25 video statement in which he said two officers were helping someone get into a locked car when a supermarket employee told them several people were leaving with stolen items.
Young was allegedly among them, according to the employee who pointed her out sitting in her car in the parking lot. She allegedly took bottles of alcohol without paying. One officer went to the driver’s side of Ms Young’s car and told her to stop and get out multiple times, Chief Belford said, while the other officer moved to the front of the vehicle.
Young then put the car in gear and accelerated, Chief Belford said. “The officer who was directly in the path of the oncoming car fired one shot through the front windshield,” the chief said. “The body camera footage I’ve reviewed also confirms the officer was directly in the path of the car.”
In the footage, the officer appears after the car rolls into him and he continues to follow young with his weapon drawn.
Police have not provided further details on the moments when Young was shot. Her car continued about 50 feet (15 meters) before stopping on the sidewalk outside the grocery store.
Officers broke the car window, pulled her out and began medical assistance with the help of an emergency room doctor who happened to be there, Chief Belford said.
The two officers’ names, ages and races were not immediately released. They are on paid administrative leave while the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation examines the shooting, which is standard in cases of police use of deadly force.
Ms Young was expected to give birth to a daughter in November. She also was the mother of two young sons, ages 6 and 3. An online effort to pay her funeral expenses has raised nearly $7,000.
Family and friends held a private vigil a day after Ms Young was killed, releasing balloons and lighting candles spelling out “RIP Kiya.” Her grandmother, Nadine Young, described her granddaughter as a family-oriented prankster who was a loving older sister and mother.
“She was so excited to have this little girl,” Nadine Young said at a press conference Wednesday. “She has her two little boys, but she was so fired up to have this girl. She is going to be so missed. I’m a mess because it’s just tragic,” she said, “but it should have never ever ever happened.”
Russian model killed after calling Putin a 'psychopath' was strangled by her exChief Belford stated at the time of the release of the video that he requested the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) to conduct an independent investigation into the incident, and that his department had no involvement in this investigation, and any policy or employee discipline reviews would be postponed until BCI completed its work.
He mentioned that he placed the officer who fired the shot on administrative leave and, as a precaution, also put the other officer on administrative leave. He added: "After reviewing the videos, I saw no reason to keep Officer #2 on administrative leave. I returned him to duty, as our staffing is already very limited, and we must continue to protect and serve our township."