(MENAFN- Live Mint) "Ta'Kiya Young – a pregnant black woman in Ohio – was shot dead last week after refusing to exit her car. Bodycam footage shows a police officer accusing her of theft and repeatedly demanding that she get out of vehicle. As Young protests, a second officer standing in front of the car joins his shouts for her to exit the car. The latter shot her dead through the windshield after Young put the car in gear and accelerated forward.“Are you going to shoot me?” she can be heard asking them seconds before she turned the steering wheel to the right and moved the car forward.The vehicle travelled some 50 feet before hitting the grocery store's brick wall and coming to a stop on the sidewalk.Officers then broke the driver's side window – which Blendon Township Police Chief John Belford said was to get Young out of the car and render medical aid. However footage of medical assistance was not provided.“The video did nothing but confirm their fears that Ta'Kiya was murdered unjustifiably ... and it was just heartbreaking for them to see Ta'Kiya having her life taken away under such ridiculcircumstances,” attorney Sean Walton told AP.A statement from the family dubbed her death“avoidable” and a“gross misuse of power and authority”.ALSO READ: Florida gunman kills three black people in racially motivated killingThe names of the two officers and further information about them - including their ages and race - have not been released. The cop who shot Young is currently on paid administrative leave while the second officer on the scene has returned to active duty.
Walton denied that Young had stolen anything from the grocery store. He said his firm found a witness who saw Young put down bottles of alcohol as she left the store.“The bottles were left in the store. So when she's in her car denying that, that's accurate. She did not commit any theft, and so these officers were not even within their right to place her under arrest, let alone take her life,” he said.Young's death follows a troubling series of fatal shootings of Black adults and children by Ohio police and numeroccurrences of police brutality against Black people across the nation in recent years, events that have prompted widespread protests and demands for police reform.Among the most prominent cases was the 2020 death of George Floyd that sparked a global agitation and calls for police reform. Other cases include Ohio resident Donovan Lewis who was shot by a K-9 officer serving a warrant while lying on his bed in August 2022. Ma'Khia Bryant, a 16-year-old girl in foster care was fatally shot in April 2021 after being accused of swinging at two people with a knife. Casey Goodson Jr. was shot five times in the back by a Franklin County sheriff's deputy in December 2020.
(With inputs from agencies)
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