Ohio officer who fatally shot pregnant 21-year-old Ta’Kiya Young charged with murder

Originally Published: 13 AUG 24 11:32 ET

Updated: 13 AUG 24 11:40 ET

By Eric Levenson, Sabrina Souza and Kristina Sgueglia, CNN

(CNN) — A police officer in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, was indicted by a grand jury on murder charges Tuesday in last year’s killing of a pregnant woman who was suspected of shoplifting, according to the Montgomery County prosecutor’s office.

Ta’Kiya Young, 21, was fatally shot inside her vehicle by an officer in the parking lot of a Kroger grocery store in Blendon Township on August 24, 2023. Her unborn child did not survive.

Blendon Township Police Officer Connor Grubb faces four counts of murder, four counts of felonious assault and two counts of involuntary manslaughter as a result of a grand jury indictment, according to a statement from the office of Prosecuting Attorney Mat Heck Jr.

“While it is concerning that an officer sworn to uphold the law has been indicted for homicide charges, no one is above the law,” the prosecuting attorney said.

Redacted body-camera footage and surveillance video of the shooting released in the weeks afterward showed that two officers had confronted her in her vehicle about accusations of shoplifting. When the car began to move in the direction of one officer, who was standing in front of the vehicle, he fired a single shot into her windshield, killing her, the video shows.

“Today marks a solemn victory in the pursuit of justice for Ta’Kiya Young and her unborn daughter, whose lives were tragically and unjustly taken at the hands of Blendon Township Police Officer Connor Grubb,” Young family attorney Sean Walton said in a statement.

“The actions that led to the death of Ta’Kiya — the unnecessary aggression, the chilling commands that amounted to ‘comply or die’ — were there for us all to witness in dreadful clarity. Ta’Kiya’s life and that of her daughter were extinguished in an act of brutality, becoming yet another symbol of the urgent need for reform in police conduct and accountability.”

CNN has reached out to the Blendon Police Department for comment.

An arraignment has been scheduled for Wednesday at 1 p.m.

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