Reports show body cam footage of the police fatally shooting Ta’Kiya Young, a 21-year-old pregnant woman in a Columbus, Ohio neighborhood, has prompted speculation about the chain of events that ended with a bullet through Young’s windshield.
The footage of the August shooting was published on Friday. In it, Young can be seen sitting in her car inside the parking lot when an officer approaches and tells her to get out.
Young asks if the officer plans to open fire on her as she begins to spin the steering wheel and drives toward the second police officer. The officer shoots through the car’s windshield, sending Young’s automobile careening into the brick wall of the grocer.
Young’s attorneys have demanded that the officer responsible for the shooting be dismissed and criminally punished.
Officials with the Blendon Police Department have declined to identify the two policemen involved.
According to a detailed report, two police officers had already arrived to deal with a separate incident immediately before the event occurred.
As Young got into her Lexus automobile, which was parked illegally in a disabled parking space and had no license plate, a Kroger grocery store employee approached the officers, accusing Young of stealing bottles of liquor.
Officers spoke to Young as she sat in her car, and the situation swiftly escalated as she refused to get out of the car and instead drove forward, striking and bringing both of the officer’s feet off the ground.
The officer shot through the glass once. Young and her unborn child did not survive.
The report indicated that some may argue that the police officer should not have stood in front of her car. However, as former Sheriff Russ Martin stated to the media, the two policemen were engaging in “contact and cover,” a tactic often used by law enforcement.
The officer standing in an area in front of the automobile seems to be acting as “cover,” gaining a higher vantage position from which to observe the suspect’s movements within the car.
Furthermore, Young may have driven away from the scene if the police officer hadn’t intervened. The police could have given her a high-speed chase or let her depart.
Unfortunately, unpunished crime is the kind of police policy that fosters criminal behavior.
