A police officer fatally shot a pregnant woman suspected of shoplifting in the parking lot of an Ohio grocery store, according to a statement from authorities.
The Franklin County Coroner’s Office identified the victim as 21-year-old Ta’kiya Young on Friday, a day after the deadly confrontation unfolded outside a Kroger in Westerville.
Officers with the Blendon Township police department were initially called to the parking lot to help a driver who was locked out of their car, the Columbus Dispatch reported. Around 6:45 p.m., they were approached by a store employee, who told them Young had just stolen several bottles of liquor.
Young was inside a four-door Lexus sedan that did not have a license plate and was illegally parked in a handicapped spot, according to Blendon Township police Chief John Belford. One officer went to the driver’s side window to address her while the other stood in front of the vehicle.
“Despite being ordered to get out of the car more than a dozen times, she refused to do so,” Belford said. “The woman put the car in gear and accelerated forward. The officer who was directly in the path of the oncoming car fired one shot through the front windshield.”
Belford said there is bodycam video that the department plans to release “as soon as the necessary legal redactions can be made.”
“The car kept moving and officers ran after it for about 50 feet. It then came to a stop on the sidewalk outside the store,” he said.
Young was taken to Mount Carmel St. Ann’s Hospital, where she died. According to her family, she was pregnant with her third child, a girl, and was due to give birth in November. She also has two sons, a 6-year-old and a 3-year-old.