Startling bodycam footage shows the moment a pregnant black woman was shot dead by police after she drove into an officer in a Kroger parking lot.
Ta’Kiya Young, 21, was a mother to two young children and was pregnant with a third when she was shot dead inside her car in Blendon Township, Ohio last Thursday after rolling her car into a police officer. The unborn child was also killed.
Local police officers approached Ta’Kiya Young in her automobile after a Kroger store worker accused her of shoplifting. The family’s lawyer denies she was involved in the theft.
Sean Walton, an attorney representing Young’s family, said the video clearly shows that the shooting was unjustified and has called for the officer to be fired and charged immediately.
He said the video did nothing but confirm the family’s fears that Ta’Kiya was murdered groundlessly, and it was just heartbreaking for them to see Ta’Kiya having her life taken away under such ridiculous circumstances. and that her family are heartbroken.
Police on Friday released the bodycam footage, and an investigation conducted by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation remains ongoing.
The video shows one officer talking to Young at her window, while another stands at the front of the bonnet of her automobile.
Young is seen rolling down her car window and asking police why she’s being stopped before turning the steering wheel and rolling her car forward into the second officer.
Shortly before the shot was fired, Young could be heard asking if they were going to shoot her.
The second officer then fires a single shot through the windscreen, ultimately resulting in her death.
Young’s car continues to glide forward until it hits the brick wall of the grocery store to the right.
The officers follow the moving car and smash the driver’s side window.
Blendon Township Chief John Belford said in a statement on Friday that within 10 seconds of getting Young out of her vehicle, officers called for paramedics and within 90 seconds, an emergency room doctor, who was in the parking lot at the time, began helping police to treat her.
A statement released on behalf of Young’s family after viewing the footage called Young’s death ‘avoidable’ and a ‘hateful act’.
The statement read that Ta’Kiya was a beacon of love, strength and energy to all who knew her.
What I find weird is that the cop decided to go and stand directly in front of the automobile, given that the victim was behind the wheel and the car engine was on. What brain cell was that cop using that day?
Undoubtedly, the young woman was attempting to get away from the police. She asked if they were going to shoot her and she was terrified that he would shoot her anyway, which of course, he did. It’s not like she was waving a weapon about. She was of no threat to them at all! And she was shot in cold blood.
Firstly, the officers should have told her to turn off her engine and step out of the vehicle. Clearly, they could see that she was pregnant of no threat to them, and not only did they kill her at short range, but they also killed her unborn child.
Let’s face it. Do people really think that this outcome was necessary and would this have happened if she had been a white 21-year-old woman? I seriously doubt it.
All they really needed to do was take her registration number and put out a warrant for her arrest. It’s not like she was running anywhere anytime soon being pregnant.
Black Lives Matter – I seriously doubt it. Racism against the law – I seriously doubt it. Equality for all – Do me a favour!
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