Shoplifting shouldn't have escalated to death in Ta'Kiya Young police shooting| Robinson
Amelia Robinson is the Columbus Dispatch's opinion and community engagement editor. She is a life-long Ohioan. @1Arobinson
If what store employees said is true, 21-year-old Ta'Kiya Young was wrong to have shoplifted alcohol from the Kroger store at 5991 S. Sunbury Road.
The pregnant mother of two should have gotten out of her car when the first Blendon Township police officer asked her to and then when a second officer came to her car.
Maybe then her car would not have moved forward toward one of the officers.
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But nothing Young did justifies what one of the two police officers did — fire a single shot through the windshield, killing a mother and her unborn daughter.
Killing escalated from shoplifting investigation
Officers were at the Kroger trying to help a person unlock a car.
Before the killing, a Kroger worker can be heard on body camera video telling an officer that Young had shoplifted.
After she repeatedly questioned why she was being told to get out of her vehicle, an office in the video can be heard telling Young “they said you stole something.” The video shows that the car never accelerated past moving at a snail's pace even after the shooting — when one of the officers pushed it to a stop at the side of the Kroger building.
There seem to be a million alternatives that could have been taken that would have ensured that the 21-year-old, her unborn child and the officers survived the encounter.
Could the office have left the path of the slow-moving car or not stepped in front of the car in the first place?
Could the car have been disabled?
Could Young have been allowed to leave and later tracked to her house?
No one should have died.
A statement released on behalf of Young's family, about an hour after viewing the police video of the incident, called Young's death "avoidable," a "gross misuse of power and authority" and a "hateful act."
In a press conference, Brian Steel, Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge No. 9 executive vice president, says the grand jury will examine the actions of the police officers and Young.
More: Ta'Kiya Young's death sparks renewed calls for improved police training in small departments
"The fact is Miss Young was not shot for stealing alcohol. She was shot because following an aggravated robbery, she tried to run down a fellow human being," Steel said.
The facts are not as cut and dry as Steel's comments indicate. The police officer is a human being and should expect to go home at the end of his shift — but so was Young.
So would have been her unborn daughter.
Using deadly force cannot be the only option just because it is an option. The ramifications are too grave. Too heartbreaking.
I am sure Young's family would have preferred bailing her out of jail versus preparing for her Sept. 7 funeral.
No doubt they would have preferred to welcome a new child.
In the wake of the Circleville police dog attacking 23-year-old truck driver Jadarrius Rose of Memphis, Tennessee, Gov. Mike DeWine said officer training in Ohio needs improving.
Such improved training may have avoided the deadly tragedy that played out in that Kroger parking lot near Westerville.
It's unfortunate that Young apparently put herself and her unborn child in such a dangerous situation, but her penalty should not have been death.
Amelia Robinson is the Columbus Dispatch's opinion and community engagement editor. She is a life-long Ohioan. @1Arobinson
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Video shows pregnant Ohio woman's theft shouldn't have led to police killing
