COLUMBUS, Ohio — An Ohio police officer will appear in court Wednesday to answer for the shooting at Ta’Kiya Jonga pregnant black mother who was murdered after being accused of shoplifting.
Blendon Township Police Officer Connor Grubb is being sued with murder, involuntary manslaughter and assault in the deaths of Young and the daughter she was expecting three months later.
Young was suspected of stealing alcohol on August 24, 2023, when Grubb and a fellow officer approached her car. She left her window halfway down and the other officer ordered her to get out. Instead, she rolled her car forward toward Grubb, who fired a single bullet through her windshield into her chest.
A Franklin County grand jury indicted Grubb on Tuesday.
Bodycam footage of the encounter showed an officer at the driver’s side window telling Young she was being 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, “Are you going to shoot me?”
Then she turned the wheel to the right, the car rolled forward slowly, and Grubb fired his gun. Moments later, after the car had come to a stop against the building, they broke the driver’s side window. Police said they tried to save her life, but she was fatally injured.
According to Sean Walton, the family’s attorney, Grubb escalated the confrontation by unnecessarily drawing his gun when he first confronted Young.
Brian Steel, president of the union representing Blendon Township police, said Grubb had to make a split-second decision, “a reality all too familiar to those who protect our communities.”
Some departments in the US forbid officers to shoot near or from moving vehicles, and law enforcement groups such as the Police Research Forum say that shooting in such circumstances poses an unacceptable risk to bystanders due to stray gunshots or the driver losing control of the vehicle.
The Blendon Township Police Department’s use of force policy states that officers should attempt to move away from an approaching vehicle rather than firing their weapons. An officer may only fire if he or she “reasonably believes that there are no other reasonable means available to avert the imminent threat posed by the vehicle, or if deadly force is directed at the officer or others other than the vehicle.”
Grubb has been employed full-time by the city since 2019 and has been on paid administrative leave since the shooting.