Pregnant woman suspected of shoplifting alcohol shot dead by police in Ohio
Body camera footage has yet to be released five days after officers with a township police department near Columbus, Ohio fatally shot a 21-year-old pregnant mother in a Kroger parking lot.
Officials in Blendon Township, located near the Westerville suburb northeast of Columbus, said they are still processing the footage and intend to show it to the woman's family before it is widely released to the public.
Ta'Kiya Young, 21, was shot and killed Thursday evening by Blendon Township police officers responding to reports that she had stolen liquor from the grocery store. Young was pregnant with her third child, who also did not survive the shooting.
Blendon Township Police Chief John Belford said in a video statement Friday afternoon that the officers involved are on paid administrative leave.
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In the video, Belford also accused Young and several other people of stealing items from the Kroger store. Belford said the two officers were in the Kroger parking lot helping someone who was having a car problem when a store employee alerted them to Young, alleging she had taken multiple bottles of alcohol from the store without paying.
Store employees later told police there were multiple other people who had been allegedly stealing items, but they had fled in other vehicles.
Young was already inside the car when the officers approached her four-door sedan, Belford said in the video. One officer was on the vehicle's driver's side and the other officer was in front of the vehicle, both giving Young more than a dozen verbal commands to exit the car and turn it off, Belford said.
Those commands were ignored, and Belford said Young instead accelerated directly at the officer in front of the vehicle, who fired a single gunshot through the windshield.
Belford said officers ran after the car for about 50 feet until it jumped the curb and crashed into a brick wall and columns outside a door to the grocery and near a walk-up pharmacy window. The car was locked, so officers broke the driver's window to to get Young out of the vehicle and begin providing medical aid.
A passerby, who is an emergency room doctor, also assisted police until paramedics arrived and transported Young Mount Carmel St. Ann's hospital, where she died from her injuries, Belford said.
Young, who is the mother of two sons, 6 and 3 years old, was pregnant with a daughter who was due in November, according to her family.
"Every loss of life is a tragedy," Belford said in the video. "The family of the woman who died is understandably upset. I’ve personally spoken with a member of the family, and I will continue to keep them informed about what’s happening."
Chief: processing body camera footage will take time
In his statement Friday, Belford said that processing the body camera footage will take time because of the redactions that are required to be made by Ohio law. Blendon Township is a small department without the staffing of agencies like the Columbus Division of Police that have a dedicated unit of multiple people who process records requests.
Blendon Township police also requested the Ohio Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Investigation conduct an outside investigation of the shooting. The procedure is standard among the larger Columbus Division of Police and many other law enforcement agencies in the surrounding Franklin County when one of their officers kills or injures someone in a shooting.
In an updated statement at 5 p.m. on Monday, Belford explained that the process to release the bodycam video involves identifying which redactions must be made, getting approval of the redactions and confirming they comply with the law from legal counsel. The police agency also plans to give the video to the state investigating agency to ensure it won't interfere with its investigation.
"Blendon Township has a small staff, but we are still committed to abiding by Ohio public records law, which requires records like body camera video to be released in a reasonable amount of time," Belford said in the statement.
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'Shoplifting now equates with losing your life?'
Young's death sparked several peaceful vigils in her memory, as well as in honor of her unborn daughter.
Local activists and protest groups met at the Kroger on Friday night and again on Sunday evening to call for justice and accountability in the shooting.
At the Friday vigil, Malissa Thomas-St. Clair, the co-founder of anti-violence group Mothers of Murdered Columbus Children, told the Columbus Dispatch, part of the USA TODAY Network, that she knew Young personally as her elementary school teacher. Thomas-St. Clair said she remembers Young as tenacious and someone who worked through adversity in her life toward graduation from high school.
"Young people make mistakes, but because I make mistakes, I should learn from them and not die from them," she told The Dispatch. "When I'm hearing that shoplifting now equates with losing your life — and you're pregnant? That deserves outrage."
Meanwhile, more than two dozen family and friends gathered Friday night at Young's grandmother's home, where they lit candles in memory of Young and her unborn child.
Nadine Young, the grandmother of the slain woman, said the family is busy making funeral arrangements and building a support network for the mother's two young surviving sons. She said her granddaughter had a knack for bringing family together and that the police shooting has them scrambling into action.
"We're all going to be rallying around (her sons), and be the village for them," Nadine Young told The Dispatch. "Taking care of them, getting them into school, and keeping them focused and not having them hate the police. I don't want them growing up like that."
Fraternal Order of Police: 'Guns not the only danger officers face'
In a Friday statement issued by Brian Steel, executive vice president of Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge #9, said "guns are not the only danger officers face." He said vehicles are also deadly weapons when used with the intent of harm.
"But regardless of the circumstances, the death in this case is heartbreaking," Steel said. "The lodge extends its condolences to the family for its loss of this young woman."
Blendon Township also canceled a previously scheduled concert that was to be held in Ridgewood park on Saturday evening.