Lawyer of Ta'Kiya Young's family demands murder charges for cop who killed her
The lawyer of Ta'Kiya Young's family is calling her death "an intentional killing" and is demanding that the Franklin County prosecutor's office "move forward with charges for murder."
The 21-year-old Black mother-of-two was fatally shot by Blendon Township police in a car park outside a grocery store in the Columbus, Ohio, suburb. She had been suspected of shoplifting alcohol from the local Kroger.
"It was a criminal act, and this should be a murder investigation," Sean Walton told The Mirror US hours after disturbing bodycam footage of the incident was released on Friday, September 1 — more than a week after the August 24 incident occurred.
A police officer points a gun at Ta'Kiya Young in disturbing bodycam footage of the incident (AP)Officers had already been on scene that fateful day assisting a customer who had become trapped in their vehicle. A store employee reportedly ran out and asked them to assist with an ongoing theft, Police Chief John Belford said in a video statement on August 25. That employee allegedly identified Young, who was sitting in her car nearby preparing to leave, as one of the suspects.
The cops raced over and screamed at her to exit the vehicle, the bodycam footage shows. One of the officers then drew his gun and jumped in front of the car, pointing the deadly weapon at the young pregnant woman. She responded by turning the steering wheel in the opposite direction.
Man in 30s dies after being stabbed in park sparking police probe
What happened next is the subject of intense scrutiny and sparked community-wide controversy. Young either took her foot off the brake or accelerated, and the vehicle lurched forward slowly.
"The video shows that she was clearly turning away from the officers, and we're not even clear that she did accelerate. Her foot could have slipped off the break," Walton said. "The car moved so slowly that there's clearly not an imminent danger to the officer."
Ta'Kiya Young was a mother to two young boys aged 6 and 3 and had a daughter on the way (Facebook)The movement nonetheless prompted the officer to fire his gun into the centre of the windshield, directly at Young. Her car then sped past, crashing into the wall of the establishment, as the officer leaped out of the way.
Smashing the driver's side window, the cops pulled young out of the vehicle and attempted to treat her injury, but it was too late — Young and her unborn daughter were both dead.
"This officer pulled out his weapon, and we're not sure what prompted him to pull out his weapon because there was not a deadly threat that was imminent. Everything about this looks like an intentional killing," Walton said. "We are requesting that the Franklin County prosecutor's office bring an indictment for murder."
"As far as we're concerned, the evidence is out there. We see what happened. We see the officer's perspective. We see Ta'Kiya's perspective. She's clearly not attempting to harm this officer," he added.
A violation of department policy
Walton alleges that the officer who shot young did so in violation of Blendon Township's use of force policy — specifically the clause that outlines gun use in the presence of moving vehicles.
The policy says that "shots fired at or from a moving vehicle involve additional considerations and risks and are rarely effective" — and Walton believes the officer didn't consider those risks.
The Blendon Township police policy states that officers should not stand in front of moving cars (AP)It also reads: "When feasible, officers should take reasonable steps to move out of the path of an approaching vehicle instead of discharging their firearm at the vehicle or any of its occupants."
"An officer should only discharge a firearm at a moving vehicle or its occupants when the officer reasonably believes there are no other reasonable means available to avert the imminent threat of the vehicle, or if deadly force other than the vehicle is directed at the officer or others," it continues.
Russian model killed after calling Putin a 'psychopath' was strangled by her ex
Walton believes the officer blatantly disregarded the policy.
"The policy says that he's supposed to move out of the way, which he could have clearly done," he said. "He stepped in front of the vehicle. They're trained to not step in front of the vehicle."
"We had an officer here who escalated a situation that did not require deadly force, and he actually did so outside of policy," Walton added. "It escalated a situation that actually required deescalation."
It's important to note that the policy also states that officers "should not shoot at any part of a vehicle in an attempt to disable the vehicle." Therefore, shooting at tires to stop the vehicle instead would not have been an option as some have suggested.
Ta'Kiya Young crashed into the side of Kroger after being shot (AP)Nonetheless, Walton said what the cop did was "a criminal act" that should be looked into as part of a murder investigation.
"This officer is to be immediately terminated for his violation of the policy that led to the death of Ta'Kiya and her daughter, and he should be indicted by the Franklin County prosecutor's office for murder," he said.
But the process for getting such charges brought forth is a complex one.
How to charge a cop with murder
Walton said he himself is limited when it comes to prosecuting the cops involved in Young's shooting. He can only bring a lawsuit against the officer and the police department as a whole for civil rights violations and for the wrongful death of Young and her daughter.
A criminal indictment for murder must come from a federal prosecutor, he said. The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) is investigating the shooting, he said, and if the authorities from that department determine that there's enough evidence to consider murder, they'll file a document with the county prosecutor's office requesting an indictment with such charges.
The prosecutor's office can then demand a grand jury be formed to examine and analyse the evidence or decide on other courses of action that would allow them to decide whether or not to press charges in the first place.
The police banged on Ta'Kiya Young's window to try and get her to leave her vehicle prior to her fatal shooting (Blendon Township Police Department)"It has to go through the prosecutor's office. It's on them to take that lead, and so we're calling on them as elected leaders to move forward with that process," Walton said.
After that, the timeline for the case and potential trials is ultimately up to the state, he said, and is completely out of his hands and those of the Young family and the community.
"The family and the community can do nothing but urge them to move with urgency," he said. "And that's what we're asking for here. This should not be a months-long process. This is something that requires swift justice."
He added that Young's family is in "shock" and "can't believe that this happened." They can't comprehend why it occurred but know it shouldn't have happened, he said.
"They're grieving. They're in shock," he said. "They're trying to be strong for Ta'Kiya's two sons."
Young's children are aged 6 and 3.
His comments come after the police department fell under scrutiny for taking over a week to release the bodycam footage of the incident to the family.
"The family should not have had to wait over a week to find out exactly what happened to Ta'Kiya," Walton said. "There's no reason they should have had to wait that long. It's heartbreaking to see the family have to go through such a devastating process."
After shooting her once, the officer who killed Ta'Kiya Young took aim again as her car veered into the grocery store wall (Facebook/BlendonTwpPolice)Walton believes the timing of the release served a twofold purpose — the department had wanted to "wait for the public outrage to fizzle out," and it chose the Friday before a holiday weekend in the hopes that the footage would garner "less media coverage and less community reaction." He said the choice was "definitely strategic."
The Blendon Township police did not immediately respond to The Mirror US's request for comment regarding the bodycam footage release or the shooting of Young.
Did Young actually shoplift?
An investigation is still underway regarding the alleged shoplifting that occurred at the Kroger that ultimately led to the fatal incident last week. But Walton firmly believes that Young did not, in fact, steal alcohol from the store — and he said he has witness testimony that proves that.
"We spoke to a witness who said that she never actually committed a theft, that she placed the liquor bottles down before she walked out of the store and that she walked out empty-handed," he said. "This isn't even a situation where the officers would have been able to arrest her."
He said the police would have detained Young, questioned her and immediately determined that she wasn't the culprit. "She would have been able to move on and live her life — and her children would still have their mother," he added.
Walton is pressing for murder charges to be brought forth against the cop who killed Ta'Kiya Young (WSYX)He said it remains unclear who actually had the bottles, but according to his witness, none of them walked out of the store with them, meaning no theft occurred. His witness, he said, had even picked up the bottles after they were left inside.
The Blendon Township police did not immediately respond to The Mirror US's request for comment regarding the shoplifting incident.
While he wouldn't comment on whether or not last Thursday's incident was a case of racial profiling, Walton did say: "Far too often, incidents like this happen in communities that are of a certain racial demographic or of a certain socio-economic demographic. The escalation of this situation is absolutely a part of that conversation."
"Without accountability for officers that commit wrongful acts, we're not going to have an end to this," he concluded. "This is a case that represents so much of what we need to change with policing in our country, especially when it relates to the policing of Black and brown communities."
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
