Bodycam video released in fatal police shooting of pregnant Black woman

Ohio authorities released body camera footage Friday of the fatal police shooting of Ta’Kiya Young, a 21-year-old pregnant Black woman. 

The footage, posted in a video with retired Sheriff Russ Martin’s analysis, came from the body camera of the two officers involved in the shooting, which took place Aug. 24 at a grocery store in Blendon Township. 

In the video, Martin said officers were already at the grocery store on an unrelated call when a store employee approached them about Young, who had allegedly stolen several items. 

One of the officers immediately proceeded to where Young was sitting in her parked car and demanded she exit the vehicle. 

Young rolled down her window and asked, “For what?” The second officer approached and stood in front of her car as the first continued to instruct her to exit her car. 

The video then showed Young slowly accelerate forward toward the officer who was standing in front of her car. He yelled at her to stop before firing a single shot that struck her. 

“The officer who was directly in the path of the oncoming car fired one shot through the front windshield,” Martin said in the video. “The body camera footage I’ve reviewed also confirms the officer was directly in the path of the car.”

After she was shot, Young’s car continued rolling forward for about 50 feet before it appeared to hit the outside grocery store wall. Officers smashed the driver’s side window and pulled Young out of the car. 

Though the Franklin County coroner’s office did not disclose where Young was hit, Blendon Township Police Chief John Belford said officers applied a chest seal to Young’s wound with the help of an emergency room doctor who happened to be on site. 

But the medical attention did not save Young’s life — she died later that evening. Her unborn daughter, due in November, also did not survive.

The footage released Friday came after Young’s family had the chance to view it with their representation.

According to Sean Walton, an attorney representing the family, they had grown frustrated with the delay in the video release. They are now calling for the officers who were involved to be named.

The unidentified officers were put on paid administrative leave while the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation examines the shooting. The first officer, who did not fire his weapon, has returned from leave and is on back patrol duty.

Belford told the Columbus Dispatch Friday that the first officer had his arm and hand inside the driver’s window when Young accelerated, making him a victim of misdemeanor assault. The second officer, who fired his weapon, was allegedly struck by the vehicle and was a victim of attempted vehicular assault.

Walton told The Associated Press on Thursday that the community would be “outraged” by the video. 

“She was an unarmed pregnant mother of two,” Walton said. “It goes beyond the unjustifiable.”

An online effort to pay for Young’s funeral expenses has raised nearly $7,000.