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 made public on Friday.
Ta’Kiya Young, a 21-year-old from Columbus, was pronounced dead shortly after the Aug. 24 shooting outside a grocery store in the suburb of Blendon Township.
Her unborn daughter did not survive.
Suspected in shoplifting, police say Young died after she accelerated her car toward an officer.
The family’s attorney, Sean Walton, says the police department has waited to release the body camera video to minimize media attention to potentially damaging footage.
Walton did not immediately respond to telephone messages from The Associated Press seeking additional comment.
Blendon Township Police Chief John Belford said the delay was due to a small staff attempting to process the video and properly redact certain images in accordance with Ohio law.
Ta’Kiya Young, a 21-year-old pregnant woman, was shot and killed by police in Blendon Township, Ohio. Courtesy of the family of Ta’Kiya Young.
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 an Aug. 25 video statement in which he said two officers were helping someone get into a locked car when a supermarket employee told them several people were leaving with stolen items. .
Young was among them, according to the employee who pointed out her sitting in her car in the parking lot.
Officers say Ta’Kiya Young was suspected of shoplifting before speeding her car toward an officer.WBNS 10TV
He allegedly took bottles 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 the other officer moved to the front of the vehicle.
Young then put the car in drive and accelerated, Belford said.
Police are on the scene moments after police officers shot and killed Ta’Kiya Young. WBS 10TV
Ta’Kiya Young was shot near the Kroger store in Blendon Township on August 24, 2023. WBNS 10TV
“The officer who was directly in the path of the oncoming car fired one shot through the front windshield,” the chief said. “The body camera footage I reviewed also confirms that the officer was directly in the path of the car.”
Police have not provided further details about the times Young was shot.
His car continued for about 15 meters before stopping on the sidewalk in front of the grocery store.
Friends comfort each other at a private candlelight vigil in Columbus, Ohio, held in honor of Ta’Kiya Young, 21, on Aug. 25, 2023. AP
The officers broke the car’s window, pulled her out and began providing medical assistance with the help of an emergency room doctor who was there, Belford said.
The names, ages and races of the two officers were not immediately released.
They are on paid administrative leave while the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation examines the shooting, which is standard in cases of police use of deadly force.
Friends and family of Ta’Kiya Young light candles that spell “RIP Kiya” at her vigil on August 25, 2023 in Columbus, Ohio. PA
Young was expected to give birth to a daughter in November.
She was also the mother of two young children, ages 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. PA
Family and friends held a private vigil the day after Young’s death, releasing balloons and lighting candles reading “RIP Kiya.”
Her grandmother, Nadine Young, described her granddaughter as a family-oriented prankster who was a loving big sister and mother.
“I was so excited to have this little girl,” Nadine Young said at a news conference Wednesday. “She has her two little children, but she was very excited to have this little girl. We will miss her very much.”
“I’m a mess because it’s just tragic,” she said, “but it should never have happened.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn