Trial continues for officer charged with shooting pregnant Black woman accused of shoplifting

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The murder trial of an Ohio police officer continued Thursday in the 2023 shooting death of a pregnant Black mother he and another officer confronted about an accusation of shoplifting.

Connor Grubb is charged with murder, involuntary manslaughter and felonious assault in the death of Ta'Kiya Young, 21, and the unborn girl due three months later. It wasn't clear whether Grubb would take the stand after the officer's written statement was read into the record on Wednesday in Franklin County Common Pleas Court.

Grubb and the fellow officer from the Blendon Township force had approached Young's car on Aug. 24, 2023, about a report she was suspected of stealing alcohol from a grocery store in suburban Columbus. She partially lowered her window, and the other officer ordered her out. Instead, she rolled her car forward toward Grubb, who fired a single bullet through her windshield into her chest, video footage showed.

A special prosecutor told the jury during opening statements last week that Grubb lacked justification for shooting Young, arguing she did not pose a threat to him or anyone at the time of the encounter. The defense countered that Young's acceleration of her vehicle in Grubb's direction was grounds for the 31-year-old officer's actions.

In Grubb's written statement, read to the jury by a special agent for the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the officer said he observed Young arguing with his fellow officer and positioned himself in front of her vehicle to provide backup and to protect other people in the parking lot.

He said he drew his gun after he heard Young fail to comply with his partner's commands. When she drove toward him, he said in the statement, he felt her car hit his legs and shins and begin to lift his body off the ground.

The defense’s expert witness supported that argument Thursday during testimony.

Geoffrey Desmoulin, principal at GTD Scientific, a forensic investigation service that specializes in injury biomechanics, incident reconstruction and product safety, said once Young’s car began to move, Grubb wouldn’t have been able to move out of the car’s path.

“It would not have been possible for Officer Grubb to react quickly enough after sensing continuous forward movement of the Lexus driven by Miss Young to move out of the travel path of the vehicle before his lower body was contacted by its front bumper,” he said.

Some members of Young’s family had left the courtroom on Monday, the first day of testimony, as jurors were shown the bodycam footage of the shooting.

The video showed an officer at the driver’s side window telling Young she was accused of shoplifting and ordering her out of the car. Young protested and both officers cursed at her and yelled at her to get out. Young could be heard asking them, “Are you going to shoot me?”

Then she turned the steering wheel to the right, the car rolled slowly forward and Grubb fired his gun, footage showed. Moments later, after the car came to a stop against the building, they broke the driver’s side window. Police said they tried to save her life, but she was mortally wounded. Young and her unborn daughter were subsequently pronounced dead at a hospital.

A full-time officer with the township since 2019, Grubb was placed paid administrative after the shooting

Mark Collins, one of the officer’s attorneys, had told reporters after Young’s arraignment that the video shows the shooting was justified, saying the officer was facing a threat of serious physical injury or death from being hit by the car.

Sean Walton, the family’s attorney, has said Grubb escalated the encounter by unnecessarily drawing his gun when he first confronted Young.