The Ohio police officer indicted in the fatal shooting of Ta’Kiya Young, a pregnant Black mother who had been accused of shoplifting, was acquitted Friday of all the charges against him.
Connor Grubb had pleaded not guilty to murder, involuntary manslaughter and felonious assault in the death of the 21-year-old woman in a supermarket parking lot in suburban Columbus in August 2023.
Ta’Kiya Young
GoFundMe Ta’Kiya Young
Bodycam footage shows the Blendon Township officer firing a single shot into Young’s chest through the windshield of her vehicle during a confrontation.
Young, who was about six months pregnant, was rushed to a nearby hospital where she was pronounced dead. Her unborn daughter also died.
Grubb, who faced up to life in prison if convicted, was found not guilty on all counts by a jury in Franklin County on Friday.
As a judge read the six not-guilty verdicts, Ta’Kiya Young’s grandmother, Nadine Young, sobbed with her head bowed, seemingly unable to stand.
Doral Chenoweth/The Columbus Dispatch via AP, Pool
Ta’Kiya Young’s grandmother, Nadine Young, reacts as the verdict is read in the trial of Blendon Township police officer Connor Grubb, who was found not guilty in the on-duty death of her daughter at Franklin County Common Pleas Court in Columbus, Ohio on Friday. (Doral Chenoweth/The Columbus Dispatch via AP, Pool)
“It’s not right! This is not right!” she screamed, as loved ones tried to comfort her.
The “heartbreaking” verdict normalizes the behavior exhibited by Grubb that day — “and that is not normal,” said the family’s attorney, Sean Walton, calling the outcome an “American tragedy.”
The deadly confrontation took place outside a Kroger store on the evening of Aug. 24, 2023.
An employee told two Blendon Township officers that Ta’Kiya Young had stolen alcohol from the store. When they approached her, she was inside a Lexus sedan without a license plate, police said.
Bodycam footage shows she refused to exit the car and began slowly rolling forward toward Grubb, who then fired his gun at her.
Grubb did not testify on his own behalf, but in a statement said he had stood in front of the car to provide backup and protect others. He said that when he saw the vehicle moving toward him, he felt it hit his legs and start to lift him off the ground as he fired.
Young is survived by two children, now 8 and 5, who are being raised by her grandmother.
With News Wire Services
