Body camera footage showing the final moments of a pregnant black woman who was shot and killed by police in an Ohio parking lot last week is expected to be released to the public on Friday.
Ta’Kiya Young, 21, of Columbus, was pronounced dead shortly after the Aug. 24 shooting outside a grocery store in suburban Blendon Township.
Her unborn daughter did not survive.
Suspected of shoplifting, police said Young was killed after he drove his car into an officer.
The family’s attorney, Sean Walton, claimed the police department had waited to release the body camera video to minimize media attention to the potentially damaging footage.
Walton did not immediately return a phone message from The Associated Press seeking additional comment.
Blendon Township Police Chief John Belford said the delay was due to a small staff trying to properly process video and edit certain footage in accordance with Ohio law.
Ta’Kiya Young, a 21-year-old pregnant woman, was fatally shot by police in Blendon Township, Ohio. Courtesy of the Ta’Kiya Young family
The family will be able to review the video before it is made public, he said.
The police chief gave a brief account of the shooting in a video statement on August 25 in which he said two officers were helping someone get into a locked car when a supermarket worker told them several people left with stolen goods.
Young was among them, according to an employee who showed him sitting in his car in the parking lot.
Officers say Ta’Kiya Young was suspected of shoplifting before he drove his car into an officer.WBNS 10TV
He allegedly took a bottle of alcohol without paying.
One officer went to the driver’s side of Young’s car and told him to stop and get out several times, Belford said, while another officer moved to the front of the vehicle.
Young then put the car in gear and sped off, Belford said.
Police were on the scene moments after Ta’Kiya Young was shot and killed by a police officer. WBNS 10TV
Ta’Kiya Young was shot near a Kroger store in Blendon Township on Aug. 24, 2023. WBNS 10TV
“The officer who was in the path of the oncoming car fired one shot through the windshield,” the chief said. “The body camera footage I reviewed also confirmed the officer was directly in the path of the car.”
Police did not provide further details about the moments Young was shot.
His car continued for about 15 meters before stopping on the sidewalk outside the grocery store.
Friends comfort each other at a private candlelight vigil in Columbus, Ohio, held for 21-year-old Ta’Kiya Young on Aug. 25, 2023. AP
Officers broke the car’s window, pulled him out and began medical aid with the help of an emergency room doctor who happened to be there, Belford said.
The names, ages and nationalities of the two officers were not immediately released.
They are on paid administrative leave while the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation looks into the shooting, which is standard in cases of police using deadly force.
Ta’Kiya Young’s friends and family light candles that say “RIP Kiya” during a vigil on Aug. 25, 2023, in Columbus, Ohio. AP
Young is expected to give birth to a daughter in November.
She is also the mother of two sons, aged 6 and 3.
An online effort to pay for his funeral expenses has raised nearly $7,000.
Friends, family and activists gather on August 25, 2023, in Columbus, Ohio, to protest the shooting of 21-year-old Ta’Kiya Young. AP
Family and friends held a private vigil the day after Young was killed, releasing balloons and lighting candles that said “RIP Kiya.”
Her grandmother, Nadine Young, described her granddaughter as a family-oriented comedian who was a loving sister and mother.
“She was so excited to have this little girl,” Nadine Young said at a press conference today. “He has two sons of his own, but he was so excited to have this girl. He will be sorely missed.”
“I’m in chaos because it’s just tragic,” he said, “but it should never have happened.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
