An officer shoots a pregnant lady through the windscreen of her car in recently released police body camera footage from a suburban Columbus, Ohio, grocery store where she is accused of shoplifting last week. Ta’kiya Young, age 21, was later declared deceased at the medical facility. A Brenden Township police officer can be seen on surveillance footage approaching Yang’s driver’s window in front of a Kroger in Westville and asking her to exit the vehicle several times.
Then, a second officer approached the automobile while still donning a body camera. You claimed to have stolen something. The officer at the window instructed Yang not to get out of the vehicle. Yang retorted, “I didn’t steal anything,” as the two argued back and forth with the window slightly ajar.
A grocery shop clerk allegedly told police a lady who was stealing bottles was in a car parked outside the business, according to police. Get out of this damn car, the cop is heard screaming on the video as he stands in front of the car with his gun drawn and his left hand on the hood. The officer by the window is still urging Young to exit the vehicle as Young can then be seen moving the steering wheel.
As the automobile starts to drive slowly forward, the officer in front of it can be seen yelling, “Get out of this damn car,” again. A little while later, the cop firing on the car while he was standing over the hood.
The police arrived at the automobile and yelled at the driver to halt after the rounds were fired. The car rolled into a building between two brick columns before rolling onto the pavement.
The driver looked to have slumped to the side while police battled to burst through the glass and for assistance. The officer’s face is obscured in the body camera footage that the Brenden Township Police Department has made public. Additionally, the images were altered and pieced together.
Yang was pregnant at the time of her death, and the foetus did not survive, according to the Franklin County coroner. Her death’s cause is still unknown.
According to police, an independent investigation of the incident is being carried out by the Ohio Department of Criminal Investigation.
According to BCI’s press secretary, Steve Irwin, the probe might take “weeks or months.” Investigators will submit their findings to the district attorney, who will determine whether to file charges, after they have finished their investigation, he added.
According to a statement from a lawyer for the Yang family, “after viewing all of the footage, it cannot be denied that Takia’s death was not only avoidable, but a gross abuse of power and authority.”
After viewing the footage of her death, the family declared that it was “clearly a criminal offence” and demanded that the officer who killed Takia and her unborn daughter be charged right away.
According to a press release from Brenden Township Police, the officers engaged in the incident did not “abandon their rights as victims” and kept their identities secret.