'She was going to run me over:' officer who fatally shot Ta'Kiya Young
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- The Blendon Township police officer who fatally shot Ta'Kiya Young said multiple times "She was going to run me over" in the moments that followed, according to new body-camera footage that was released Friday.
Police released longer video of the incident from each of the two officers who confronted Young on Aug. 24 at the Kroger on Sunbury Road. Chief John Belford said the longer versions were released just now because of the extra time it took to redact them. Also released were two videos that showed security footage from inside the Kroger and its parking lot. NBC4 is not posting the full footage because of its graphic nature.
Young, whose funeral took place Thursday, was a 21-year-old mother of two boys who was pregnant with a girl. Her death prompted protests in the community.
In the new footage, Young was shown going into the liquor section of the Kroger with a handheld shopping basket and a shoulder bag that had a second bag inside of it. She placed bottles into the basket and later transferred them to the shoulder bags. She went to the liquor-section register with some bottles in the basket, but after waiting in line for about a minute, she walked out carrying the basket with two other women who were with her, setting off an alarm.
Young walked out of the Kroger without the basket but with the bags on her shoulder. The other women walked out with her. A store employee came outside and pointed out Young to the Blendon Township police officers who were there helping a person get into their locked car. The other women went to a separate car.
As seen in the footage released Sept. 1, one officer went to Young's driver's-side window and ordered her out of the car multiple times as the second officer stepped in front of the car and pulled out his handgun. Young began to pull her car forward, lifting the officer in front off the ground. He fired one shot through the windshield, striking Young, and the car rolled about 50 feet before hitting the store wall.
The extended footage from the officers' body cameras showed that as they tried to pull Young out, her foot was still on the gas, causing the car to lurch forward and Young to fall to the ground.
“She was going to run me over,” said the officer who shot her, who Young’s family has identified as Connor Grubb, as the second officer applied pressure to her gunshot wound.
“I know she was, I know she was,” the second officer responded.
The officer who shot Young ran to his squad car to retrieve a chest seal. A passerby wearing an OhioHealth shirt identified himself as an emergency room physician and helped for several minutes. After the chest seal was applied, the doctor said he couldn't locate a pulse, and the other officer began CPR. A rotation of responding officers kept up chest compressions until medics arrived about 12 minutes after the shot was fired.
The officer who shot Young spoke to other responding officers, repeating that Young attempted to run him over. The other officer looked into one of the shoulder bags, which had the liquor bottles in it. He also spoke with Belford, at times muting his body-camera microphone. Other times, the audio of the footage was removed from the released version.
“Given the complexity of the redactions, it took our small department a lot of time to consult with our legal team and then make the legally required, frame by frame redactions on more than 50,000 frames of video," Belford said. "While this footage shows a tragic situation, we have a responsibility to be transparent and provide the records the law requires us to release.”
Belford also defended not releasing the names of the two officers, citing victims' rights legislation known as Marsy's Law.
The initial footage was shown to Young's family before it was publicly released. According to a family attorney, it learned of the extended footage only after it had been released to the public.
"It shows us nothing but more evidence of murder," the attorney, Sean Walton, said. "I fully believe that it further solidifies our position that a murder occurred and the officer … should be terminated and indicted."
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is investigating the shooting. Its findings will be given to the Franklin County prosecutor for presentation to a grand jury.