By Agencies
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Ohio authorities on Friday released bodycam video showing police officers fatally shooting Ta’Kiya Young in her car in what her family denounced as a “gross misuse of power and authority” against the young pregnant Black woman.
The 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.
The footage, which comes more than a week after her death, shows another officer at the driver’s side window, repeatedly demanding that Young “get out of the car.”
The officer by her window tells Young she had been accused of theft. She protests, and he repeats his demand that she get out of the car. She turns the steering wheel to her right and accelerates toward the officer standing in front of it. The officer in front of the vehicle fires through the windshield at Young and seconds later, her sedan drifts until it hits the grocery store’s brick wall.
Officers then break her window, which Blendon Township Police Chief John Belford said was to get Young out of the car and render medical aid, though footage of the medical assistance was not provided.
Young’s family members were able to view the footage before its public release and released a statement Friday through their attorney, Sean Walton.
“Having viewed the footage in its entirety, it is undeniable that Ta’Kiya’s death was not only avoidable, but also a gross misuse of power and authority,” the statement said.
Walton called Young’s death avoidable and said the family is seeking a swift criminal indictment of the officers in Young and her daughter’s deaths.
Walton told The Associated Press on Thursday that the family grew frustrated with delays in the police department timeline of releasing body camera footage publicly.
Belford said the delay resulted from a small staff trying to process the video and properly redact certain footage, such as officers’ faces and badge numbers, in accordance with Ohio law.
The two officers’ names, ages and races 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.
Young was expected to give birth to a daughter in November. An online effort to pay her funeral expenses has raised nearly $7,000.
Ta’Kiya’s siblings, cousins, grandmother and father have rallied around her sons, 6-year-old Ja’Kobie and 3-year-old Ja’Kenlie, who don’t yet understand the magnitude of what happened to their mother, Walton said.
“It’s a large family and Ta’Kiya has been snatched away from them,” Walton said. “I think the entire family is still in shock.”
Family and friends held a private vigil a day after Young was killed, releasing balloons and lighting candles spelling out “RIP Kiya.”
Her grandmother, Nadine Young, described her granddaughter as a family-oriented prankster who was a loving older sister and mother.
“She was so excited to have this little girl,” Nadine Young said at a news conference Wednesday. “She has her two little boys, but she was so fired up to have this girl. She is going to be so missed.”
“I’m a mess because it’s just tragic,” she said, “but it should have never ever ever happened.”
