A grand jury from Franklin County, Ohiohanded down a 10-count indictment Tuesday for murder, assault and manslaughter against Officer Connor Grubb for the killing of Ta’Kiya Young, a 21-year-old pregnant black mother last August.
“The road to this point has been arduous and long,” the family’s young lawyer, Sean Walton, said in a statement to The Hill.
“However, we can state that, although delayed, the appropriate course of action was taken to secure charges against Officer Grubb. The actions that led to Ta’Kiya’s death – the unnecessary aggression, the chilling commands that amounted to ‘comply or die’ – were there for all of us to witness with terrifying clarity.”
Grubb shot Young on August 24, 2023, in the parking lot of a Kroger store. Young was suspected of stealing bottles of alcohol when Grubb, a Blendon Township police officer and a fellow officer approached her in a car, according to the indictment.
In the body camera footage, an officer is heard cursing Young, saying “get out of the f***ing car,” and Young is heard protesting and asking “are you going to shoot me?”
Young refused to get out and drove the car forward, and Grubb shot him. a single bullet through the windshield, according to body camera footage. Young and her daughter, whom she was expecting in three months, died.
Walton argued that body camera footage shows that Grubb and the other officer did not allow paramedics to approach the car for at least 10 minutes after she was shot.
In the indictment, Grubb faces four counts of murder: two in connection with Young’s death and two in connection with the death of Young’s unborn daughter. He also faces four counts of second-degree felonious assault and two counts of involuntary manslaughter. Under Ohio law, a person can be charged with multiple counts tied to different theories about how a death occurred.
Blendon Township Police Chief John Belford told The Hill that the department has already begun a disciplinary review against Grubb.
“No one in Blendon Township has judged whether Officer Grubb acted within the law,” the police chief said in a statement. “However, since the people who have been charged may not legally possess a firearm, the charge against him leaves us no choice but to begin the disciplinary process.”
Grubb’s union, the Fraternal Order of Police Local 9, denounced the accusation, saying it was “deeply disappointed” with the decision. Local 9 President Brian Steel also accused prosecutors of being biased and “politically motivated.”
“Prosecutors are free to present whatever evidence they see fit,” Steel wrote to The Hill. “This discretion can sometimes be misused, leading to politically motivated charges.”
“Officer Grubb had to make a split-second decision, a reality all too familiar to those who serve to protect our communities,” he added.
According to Columbus’s Dispatchvideo surveillance from the parking lot shows that Grubb’s feet were not on the ground when he fired shots at the car. Surveillance from inside the store shows Young placing bottles of alcohol in a bag.
When the footage was released last September, Walton said the footage did not show Young trying to run over Grubb.
“What is clear from the video is that she did not attempt to run him over, she turned the steering wheel as far away from him as possible before the vehicle began to move slowly forward and to the right, and Grubb had every opportunity to follow the political department and take evasive action rather than firing his firearm into Ta’Kiya’s chest,” he wrote.
Young’s family members called for the officer to be charged soon after the shooting last year. They called Grubb’s actions a “gross abuse of power and authority,” especially since Young was charged with shoplifting and not a violent crime.
“What is clear is that petty theft does not justify murder and do or die is not the rule of law in this country,” Walton told The Hill. “The fact that an unarmed woman was unjustifiably shot, then dragged out of her car and handcuffed after being shot should shake the conscience of everyone watching the newly released video.”
Walton also responded to Steel’s statement following Grubb’s indictment on Tuesday.
“The statement…underscores a cowardly but consistent readiness to excuse the inexcusable,” Walton wrote to The Hill.
“It upholds systems of oppression while retaining good officers who also seek systemic change for our communities,” he added. “As we support Ta’Kiya’s family, we cannot overstate the bitter irony that Officer Connor Grubb is now the fourth member of Capital City Lodge #9 to await trial for murder.”
Since 2019, four Steel union members faced accusations related to on-duty shootings, according to the Dispatch.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
